Mexico News Daily reports on a trove of 3,500 coins – long, copper strips used for exchange as early as 1200 CE – that U.S. FBI officials have returned to the Mexican consul in a formal ceremony:
The coins were used in what are now Michoacán and Guerrero between the years 1200 and 1500, according to Jessica Cascante, spokesperson for the Mexican Consulate in Miami.
A U.S. collector acquired them in Texas at a numismatic fair in the 1960s, she said, but at that time neither Mexico nor the United States was part of a UNESCO convention that guarantees the return of such heritage artifacts to their countries of origin.
Cascante said the fragile, tongue-shaped coins, which are currently covered in verdigris, will be sent to Mexico in January.
Agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) who headed the operation to recover the coins attended the presentation ceremony along with the Consul General of Mexico in Miami, Jonathan Chait.
[via Archaeological News]