A RARE Roman coin celebrating the murder of Julius Caesar has been returned to Greece after an operation by British Customs.

The 1st century BC Brutus coin, with a double-dagger design representing the Roman politician’s role in the assassination of Julius Caesar, was excavated illegally and brought to London by two Greeks.

The daggers flank the cap of Liberty, the special head-dress of the twins Castor and Pollux given to freed slaves and used to charactise Caesar’s murder as a patriotic act.

The Greek Government used a Council of Europe directive to claim back what it described as a national treasure. It is the first time European law on stolen cultural items has been used in Britain.

A British dealer, who insisted that he bought the 18mm coin in good faith, has handed it over to the Greek Embassy in London. Eric McFadden, the senior director of the Classical Numismatic Group, confirmed that he had bought it from two Greeks — even though one of them had allegedly been linked with Nino Savoca, an Italian dealer in Munich, who died in 1998 after being found to have been dealing in smuggled antiquities.

Mr McFadden, whose company is regarded as one of the world’s leading specialists in Greek and Roman coins, told The Times: “He did some work for Nino in the 1980s ... One doesn’t refuse to deal with someone because he has a slightly shady background.

“One looks at the deal on the table. We’re business people. If there’s any indication something’s not legitimate, we don’t deal in it.”

The silver denarius coin came from a mobile military mint travelling with Brutus in exile in northern Greece in 42BC when he was the self-styled Emperor after taking part in the killing of Caesar in on the Ides of March in 44BC.

Barely 80 examples are thought to have survived worldwide and few are in public collections.This example came to Britain last summer. Two Greeks were stopped by Customs at Stansted airport. They claimed that they had arrived to spend the day in London, but they carried hardly any money.

When they returned to the airport in the evening they were stopped again by Customs, when they were found to be carrying a large sum of cash in euros.

An investigation by Customs determined that the cash was payment for a coin that they had sold that morning to Classical Numismatic Group, of London. The cash was seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act, and Customs contacted the Greek Embassy.

After extensive research by its Culture Ministry’s unit against the illegal traffic of antiquities, the Greek Government exercised a European directive on the return of cultural objectsthat passed into British law in 1994. Alan Bercow, of Stephenson Harwood, British lawyers for the Greek Government, said: “These laws have been in force for over ten years but this is the first time they have been used in Britain.”

Victoria Solomonidis, the cultural counsellor at the Greek Embassy, said that the coin had been “safely delivered unconditionally” by Classical Numismatic Group.