A 72-year-old man was arrested for illegally obtaining a collection of 1,061 copper coins of historical significance. The man, a villager in Alexandria, northern Greece, had a thousand coins from the Hellenistic period from the third to the first century B.C., the Byzantine period from 337-1453 and the Ottoman Empire. He also had 16 copper rings and other jewelry of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine era.

Police confiscated the antiquities and archaeologists found that the valuable collection was subject to the Greek law protecting antiquities linked to the cultural heritage of Greece.

An arsenal of 16 revolvers and rifles was also found. This is not the first time that the man has been charged with antiquities smuggling.