PREFACE
Toward the end of the year 2017, when the idea to hold an exhibition at AKMED first came up, everyone working at the center agreed that the most appropriate place to host such an event would be the Church of Hagios Georgios, located within the Kaleiçi Museum. We wanted the exhibition’s focus to be on coins as well as scales and similar weighing instruments. This way, not only would it be less difficult to bring such small, portable works to the exhibition space (as compared with other objects of archaeological and ethnographic value), but it would also be relatively easy to display such works. As the first step, we began the work of procuring the coins, scale weights, scales, steelyard balances, and other material that had been chosen to be displayed in the exhibition. Special care was taken to display the selected works in line with the social, cultural, and economic environment of marketplaces and shopping, because the exhibition would only be meaningful if the materials on display were placed into their proper context. In the end, with the appropriate arrangements implemented, the church became a lovely exhibition space, its authentic historical atmosphere bringing the exhibition to the fore and providing it with a special charm.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the officials of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s General Directorate for Cultural Heritage and Museums, who greatly eased the process of opening the exhibition; to Özalp Birol, Director of Culture and Arts at the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, who granted permission for the works in their collection to be temporarily displayed at the exhibition; to the collectors İzak Eskinazi, Zeki Karaoğlu, Çetin Erdem, Altan Tokgöz, Özkan Arıkantürk, and Bahadır Kalaycı; to Gültekin Teoman, who lent support during the coordination phase; to Arif Yacı, who photographed all the coins and weights; to Mustafa İncebacak, who took additional photographs of some works, such as scales and balances; to Emrullah Can for his contributions in the area of certain other visual materials; and to Michael D. Sheridan for translating the Turkish texts into English. The design and catalog of the exhibition were carried out by Pattu Architecture, and for this I owe thanks to Cem Kozar and Işıl Ünal. I also would like to express my gratitude toward Remziye Boyraz Seyhan for the great care she took during both the preparations for the exhibition and the preparation and completion of this catalog. And of course, the entire AKMED team was always right beside me in the process of getting the exhibition open on time and in eliminating any and all shortcomings, and so I sincerely thank each and every one of them, with whom it is a great joy and pleasure to be able to work.
Finally, as a last word, I would like to thank the Vehbi Koç Foundation and its President Mr. Erdal Yıldırım for providing the financial support for the publication of this catalog.
Oğuz Tekin