Two dealers from the Mykolaiv region were punished for attempting to sell ancient coins abroad

A court has handed down a verdict in the case of two residents of the Mykolaiv region who attempted to sell ancient coins from the Olbia Chora era—which are of cultural and historical value—abroad.

According to the Kherson Regional Prosecutor’s Office, the court established that the two men, aged 60 and 62, attempted to illegally sell abroad coins that were in circulation in the Northern Black Sea region during the existence of the Olbia Chora.

To find a buyer, they used an online classifieds platform and agreed with an individual located in the Republic of Moldova to sell and illegally transport the archaeological finds across Ukraine’s state border.

To conceal the cultural artifacts from customs inspection, the men hid the coins inside the casing of an electronic measuring device—a voltmeter.

In late May 2026, the men handed over the package to be shipped via an international bus route from Mykolaiv to Moldova. The drivers, unaware of the package’s contents, agreed to deliver it to the recipient.

The defendants failed to carry out their plan—during customs inspection, the cultural artifacts were discovered and seized.

The court sentenced each of them to five years of imprisonment. The convicts were also barred from engaging in activities related to the trade in cultural property for a period of two years.

Pursuant to Articles 75 and 76 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the convicts were exempted from serving the principal sentence on probation, and a probationary period of one year was established. During this time, they are required to fulfill the obligations imposed by the court and refrain from committing new criminal offenses.

Recently, in the Mykolaiv region, a court punished an agronomist whose actions led to heavy machinery destroying a burial mound—an archaeological site under state protection. Along with the site, valuable information about the ancient inhabitants of the steppe was lost.

Ірина Глухова