Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-08-04

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Ministerial decisions for hydrocarbon exploration tendering signed

[02] Five ancient silver coins returned to Greek state by New York County DA

[01] Ministerial decisions for hydrocarbon exploration tendering signed

There will be no additional tax or fee, extraordinary or regular, or any other type of fee, accordign to the decision. The two relevant ministerial decisions signed on Monday will be published in the Government Gazette and afterward in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The ministerial decisions concern the tender for the International Round of Concessions for the Rights to Exploration and Exploitation in 20 sea blocks in the Ionian Sea and south of Crete. According to the procedure, offers will be accepted within six months after the day the tender will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, or roughly until March 2015.

They also concern the international tender for the onshore regions in Western Greece "Arta-Preveza", "Aetoloakarnania" and "Northwest Peloponnese" for which ENEL company has expressed interest in mid April. According to existing legislation, investors are called to express interest and submit their offers within 90 days after the tender's publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The exploration stage will last up to 8 years with the option of extension, while the exploitation stage begins as soon as commercially exploitable hydrocarbon reserves are found and can last 25 years with the option of other two five-year extensions.

Environment, Energy & Climate Change Minister Yiannis Maniatis underlined that today's decisions are the result of the past three years' hard work.

[File photo, "Nordic Explorer" in Ionian Sea, Patras and south Crete, February 27, 2013. ANA-MPA/Giota Korbaki]

[02] Five ancient silver coins returned to Greek state by New York County DA

The five silver coins were found in the possession of a Rhode Island collector, medical doctor Arnold-Peter Weiss, 54, who was arrested for possession of stolen coins during a coin auction in Manhattan in January 2012. Weiss turned over to authorities a total of 20 coins as part of a plea bargain.

The five silver coins are dated to between the 6th and 4th centuries BC and include four staters and a didrachm, as follows: three staters from Thrace (northeastern Greece), respectively dated to circa 515-480 BC (Hercules head on obverse, engraved square on the reverse), c. 405-395 BC (Dionysus head, Boeotian shield) and c. 395-338 BC (shield, krater vessel); a stater from Opuntian Locris (central Greece), dated to c. 369-338 BC, with a head of Demeter on one side and Opuntian Ajax on the other; and a silver didrachm from the island of Evia or Euboea (off the east coast of Attica), dated to c. 375-357 BC, with a head of a Euboean cow and the nymph Euboea on the other.

County DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. presented the coins to Greece's representative, Ambassador Christos Panagopoulos, explaining the process of how the coins were found. Panagopoulos said the coins, which he said were "of notable beauty and incalculable archaeological value," would go on exhibit at the Numismatic Museum of Athens.

[File photo of a tetradrachm from Eretria, Evia, 510-490 BC, depicting a bull or cow and an octopus. ANA-MPA, May 14, 2014]

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