2018-04-05 Thu

To commemorate the 2400th anniversary of the founding of Plato’s Academy Greece issued a 2 Euro coin in 2013.

The Cupronickel coin has on the inner part of the coin’s obverse the profile of Plato, the founder of the Platonic Academy. On the left side of the coin is depicted the Greek inscription “2400 years since the founding of the Platonic Academy” in Greek and the name of the issuing country in the ancient Greek font. The mintmark and the year mark 2013 are to the right. On the bottom is the monogram of the author G. Stamatopoulos. The twelve stars of the European Union surround the design on the outer ring of the coin.

The reverse depicts the common design of all the Euro coins: the centre face value 2, on the right inscription “EURO”; in the background of the inscription a map of Europe; in the background of the map vertically six parallel lines ending on both sides with five-pointed stars.

The Academy was founded by Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) in ca. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) studied there for twenty years (367 BC – 347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a sceptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. Although philosophers continued to teach Plato's philosophy in Athens during the Roman era, it was not until AD 410 that a revived Academy was re-established as a centre for Neo-Platonism, persisting until 529 AD when it was finally closed down by Justinian I.

Image Courtesy: Google Images