Corinth Excavations Numismatist- Orestes H. Zervos

Born in Corfu, Greece, Orestes Zervos went to the United States to complete high school. He studied liberal arts and science at Franklin and Marshall College and at Columbia University. He received his Ph. D. (1974) from New York University where his doctoral thesis on Greek Hellenistic coinage was entitled “The Early Coinages of Ptolemy I, 326-304 B.C.” After a long affiliation with the American Numismatic Society, as an associate member (1965) and later as a fellow (1987), he returned to Greece in 1980 to assume the post of numismatist for the Corinth Excavations.

Orestes’ duties are servicing a coin collection of some 90,000 specimens, publication of selected parts of the collection, and numismatic research. His range of knowledge runs from Archaic to modern. The meticulous care that he puts into each coin has made him an expert in working with excavation finds, and with identifying ancient counterfeits and special certification marks on ancient coinage. His current research includes a series of articles summarizing his work in Corinth, specifically Frankish and Late Byzantine coins, and the publication of his thesis. He also has a great knowledge of the topography of the Corinthia. Orestes retired in 2008 but still volunteers his spare time to the excavations. He can be contacted via .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).