The EMC Corporation, world leader in solutions of informatics infrastructures, announced that the "Coin Collection of the Foundation of the Hellenic World" is the winner of the first "EUCLIDES" programe in history. This programme aims at demonstrating that technology supports the maintenance and promotion of Greek cultural heritage and more specifically to present the historical importance of the coin collections and to underline their scarcity. The "EUCLIDES" programme was implemented by EMC Hellas and the Foundation of the Hellenic World, with the significant contribution of the companies Alpha Bank, Cisco and Uni Systems.

More specifically, in November 2007 the Foundation of the Hellenic World purchased a coin collection belonging to a German private collector, which includes approximately 13,600 coins and small items. The main volume of the collection consists of bronze coins of the Roman Period from Asia Minor. The collection is considered, by the most acclaimed numismatists that know about it, one of the four greatest and most important collections in the world regarding coins of the Greek cities in Asia Minor, after the one in London (British Museum), in Berlin (Museum of Berlin) and in Paris (Collection of Medals and Coins of the National Library of France).

The submission of the proposals for the participation in the "EUCLIDES" programme was completed on March 12th, 2010 and the project that won was awarded 20,000 Euro. In the evaluation of the proposals participated the following: George Mavrakis, Managing Director of EMC Greece, Cyprus and Malta, Giannis Chatzikomnou, Erevnites Publications, Rovertos I. Goglis Project Manager of Alpha Bank, Antonis Kassano, Infrastructure Technology Solutions Division Manager of Uni Systems and Fotis Ioannidis, Systems Engineering Manager of CISCO for Greece, Cyprus and Malta.

George Mavrakis, Managing Director of EMC for Greece, Cyprus and Malta, pointed out: "We are particularly pleased that the proposal regarding the coin collection of the Foundation of the Hellenic World was selected, since its implementation proves in the best possible way that technology can support and maintenance and promotion of Greek cultural heritage. In the effort of our company to add value to enterprises fro the present and future, we are always paying attention to the preservation of all the valuable elements of the past, creating and providing suitable technological infrastructure and solutions. The "EUCLIDES" programme constitutes proof of the way we bring the past alive today, remaining at the forefront of technology".

Dimitris Efraimoglou, Managing Director of the Foundation of the Hellenic World stated: "Three years ago the Foundation of the Hellenic World had the opportunity to purchase a coin collection which belonged to a German private collector and includes 13,265 coins from Asia Minor, mainly of the Roman Period, but also a small number of Byzantine and Ortukid coins. The collector, like his ancestors, was a lover of the ancient Greek culture and for this reason he made efforts to bring the whole collection in Greece, believing that it belonged here. As it was natural, as soon as the proposal reached the Foundation it was considered essential that the collection should return to Greece at any cost and as a matter of fact to a foundation with our objectives. Of course afterwards, we learned that the collection is considered, by well known scientists that know about it, one of the four greatest coin collections about Greek cities, after the ones in London, Berlin and Paris. Today, the company ΕΜC, in the framework of the EUCLIDES competition, awards the digitization of our coin collection enabling us to proceed with its dissemination to the wide public through the modern, international communication tool, the Internet. We would like to thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to expand our already difficult work in a extremely adverse period and we hope that similar initiatives will be undertaken by other companies that are active in our country."