10 euro 2020 Proof 2500th Anniversary Battle of Salamis Themistocles

Greek collectible silver proof coin with a face value of 10 euros, for the 2500th Anniversary Battle of Salamis – Themistocles, maximum number of 3,000 pieces, Bank of Greece mint, issued in 2020.

The photo is indicative, the coin you will receive is in the original box along with the certificate of authenticity.

After their victory at Thermopylae, the Persians pushed forward through Central Greece and sacked Athens. The Greek fleet, numbering some 380 warships, in majority from the city-states of Athens, Corinth and Aegina, reassembled at the island of Salamis, in the Saronic Gulf, in September 480 BC. Although the council of Greek generals had decided that the fleet should redeploy to the Isthmus of Corinth, in order to block Xerxes’s advance to the Peloponnese, the Athenian general Themistocles was confident that a battle within the narrow confines at Salamis would neutralise the Persian fleet’s numerical superiority. Thus, he sent a slave to Xerxes warning him that the Greeks were about to flee and advising him to hastily blockade the straits. Thanks to this stratagem, the Greeks, chanting the famous paean «Ὦ παῖδες Ἑλλήνων, ἴτε, ἐλευθεροῦτε πατρίδα» (“Forward, sons of Greeks, liberate the fatherland!”), dealt a decisive blow to the Persians, forcing Xerxes to leave Greece.

Issuer	Greece
Ruling authority	Third Hellenic Republic (1974-date)
Type	Non-circulating coins
Year	2020
Value	10 Euros (10 EUR)
Currency	Euro (2002-date)
Composition	Silver (.925)
Weight	34.1 g
Diameter	40 mm
Thickness	3 mm
Shape	Round
Technique	Milled
Orientation	Medal alignment ↑↑