The hall of the Archaeological Museum of Alicante from today hosts the exhibition of the most important and significant numismatic collection of the province. More than 400 gold and silver coins contemporary period make up this exhibition, which includes part of the booty that was discovered by the Vicente Ferrer Escrivá at April 1963 during a renovation of his house in Sant Joan d'Alacant.
The Member of Parliament for Institutional Image and Promotion Mª Carmen from Spain presented this morning the exhibition "The treasure of Sant Joan d'Alacant" together with the local mayor Manuel AracilThe event was also attended by MARQ's technical director Manuel Olcina and the curator of the exhibition Julio J. Ramón Sánchez.
Mª Carmen de España pointed out that this collection of coins reflects the generosity shown in its day by its discoverers, who gave them to the Sant Joan d'Alacant Town Council. Subsequently, this treasure was deposited in the MARQ, where it has been kept by ministerial order and, since 2002, has been exhibited in the Modern and Contemporary Ages room. This important gesture made it possible to conserve this jewel of Alicante's historical heritage and allowed it to reach the present day intact.
The exhibition is also complemented by a audiovisual,an explanatory panel and a didactic guide -available in Spanish, Valencian and English- which is included in the series of MARQ publications".Al voltant d'una peça"The exhibition explores the history of this treasure, its composition, its possible owner, the social context and the circumstances that explain why it was hidden.
For his part, the mayor of Sant Joan stressed the importance of this exhibition and thanked the Alicante museum for the work it has done to highlight this numismatic collection which, he said, contributes to enriching and disseminating the history of the municipality.
As a whole, the 'treasure of Sant Joan' is composed by fifteen gold coins and 486 silver coinsAll of them were issued by Spanish monarchs, the oldest in 1708 and the most modern in 1823. After their study and cataloguing, the technicians of the Alicante museum have concluded that their concealment must have been linked to the uncertainty in Sant Joan between July and November 1823 due to the intervention of the French army.who entered Spain to reinstate Ferdinand VII as absolute monarch and brought about the end of the liberal triennium.
In this climate of political and military uncertainty, a local person, who has been identified as Antonio Quereda Chápuli, hid his savings. When he died without informing anyone of the existence of the money or the hiding place, this treasure was formed and remained hidden for 140 years, explained the curator of the exhibition.
The exhibition also coincides with the recent edition of the scientific monograph "The treasure of Sant Joan d'Alacant", a publication by Julio J. Ramón which offers a rigorous numismatic and historical study of this set of coins.
