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Farmer sells rare Greek coin at throwaway price
By our correspondent
MARDAN: A local of Marchakey Deray village of Charsadda district found a rare Greek coin while working in his farm and later sold it for Rs30,000 to a coins smuggler in Peshawar.
A reliable source requesting anonymity told The News that a local of Charsadda district found a coin of King Telephos era, which is considered extremely rare and unique. He claimed the price of such a coin is estimated more than Rs1.5 million in the market but the local was naive and sold the coin at a throwaway price.
Telephos, he disclosed, was a Greek king in Gandhara around 290BC and remained on the throne only for three months because another king killed him, therefore, antiquities of his time were rare and precious.
The source also disclosed that presently work in Kashmir Smast is going on and the smugglers from Peshawar and surrounding areas recovered a lot of coins of various periods. He claimed that earlier some smugglers from Peshawar and others recovered gold pottery and bronze statue of Buddha from the same site besides a large number of coins.
Kashmir Smast is a Buddhist site situated on the border of Rustam and Babozai mountains in Mardan district, which was discovered by the British-Indian researchers in 1860s and a large number of different antiquities were recovered in the past. Currently, the smugglers are working at the site and have destroyed it completely because of the negligence of the Archaeological Department. If the department ignored it anymore, the site might possibly vanish from map of the world.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=68463
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By our correspondent
MARDAN: A local of Marchakey Deray village of Charsadda district found a rare Greek coin while working in his farm and later sold it for Rs30,000 to a coins smuggler in Peshawar.
A reliable source requesting anonymity told The News that a local of Charsadda district found a coin of King Telephos era, which is considered extremely rare and unique. He claimed the price of such a coin is estimated more than Rs1.5 million in the market but the local was naive and sold the coin at a throwaway price.
Telephos, he disclosed, was a Greek king in Gandhara around 290BC and remained on the throne only for three months because another king killed him, therefore, antiquities of his time were rare and precious.
The source also disclosed that presently work in Kashmir Smast is going on and the smugglers from Peshawar and surrounding areas recovered a lot of coins of various periods. He claimed that earlier some smugglers from Peshawar and others recovered gold pottery and bronze statue of Buddha from the same site besides a large number of coins.
Kashmir Smast is a Buddhist site situated on the border of Rustam and Babozai mountains in Mardan district, which was discovered by the British-Indian researchers in 1860s and a large number of different antiquities were recovered in the past. Currently, the smugglers are working at the site and have destroyed it completely because of the negligence of the Archaeological Department. If the department ignored it anymore, the site might possibly vanish from map of the world.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=68463
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