LONDON GALLERY LETS STUDENTS HANDLE ANCIENT COINS

“Any idea how much this costs today?” a gallery assistant asks the teenage pupils as, gingerly, they put down a 3in-high bronze horse.

One girl suggests £1,000, another £10,000, a third £50,000. Each time, they’re told it’s higher. Hayley McCole, the assistant, shakes her head and replies: “It is now priced at £500,000.”

The school children stare down at the thin, graceful, slightly patinated votive, from Laconia, Greece, in the 8th century BC. One boy nudges another, saying: “More than a house.”

These artefacts, on sale at the Kallos Gallery, Mayfair, are being shown to children to encourage interest in Ancient Greece and other classical subjects in state schools. The 20 pupils have travelled from Patcham High School, Brighton. Moments earlier the teenagers took turns to handle the horse figurine: the only rules were to hold it over the table and cradle it in their palm, rather than pick it up by its slender, more delicate legs.

Next, Ms McCole produces three gold coins from ancient Greece, including a tiny piece found at Syracuse, Sicily, with the head of the nymph Arethusa on one side and Heracles killing the Nemean lion on the other. The children peer though magnifying glasses to absorb the exquisite detail, and ask how the coins were minted and stamped. Then comes the inevitable question: what are they worth?

Ms McCole, who like her audience is wearing white gloves, explains that coins derive value from their rarity, clarity and quality and far fewer survive from Ancient Greece than from Rome. The beauty of this coin gives it a value of £125,000.

To read the complete article, see:
Children hold a piece of history (www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education/article4733732.ece?shareToken=6a6962996b2975ba2bf7ed799e85e3ef)

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