UK Forced to Return 'brutus Coin' to Greece

A thimble-sized coin marking antiquity's most notorious murder, the assassination of Julius Caesar, has been returned to Athens - thanks to the beady eye of a British customs official, a little-known EU directive and the determination of the Greek government.

The repatriation of the rare danarius, a year after it was illicitly spirited out of the country, was yesterday hailed by the culture minister, Giorgos Voulgarakis: "[Its] return is a forebear of future repatriations which are all in line with our main goal: combatting antiquities smuggling and safeguarding our cultural treasures."

Cut on the orders of Brutus, who engineered the murder, the silver coin weighs a mere 3.2 grams. It carries the inscription EID - Mar, short for the Ides of March, or March 15, the day Caesar was murdered.

After being illegally excavated, it was sold to the Classical Numismatic Group in London, one of the world's leading specialists in ancient coinage. The group insisted it had been bought in good faith.

Greece invoked EU law to repatriate the coin. It is the first time the UK has been forced to adhere to legislation calling for the repatriation of illegally removed cultural goods. The danarius might never have been retrieved without the help of UK customs officials who stopped the coin being resold, said Victoria Solomonides, Greek cultural attache in London.

The coin will be Exhibited in the Numismatic Museum in Athens.