This episode of the television program "Kojak" shows some ancient Greek and Roman coins. "Kojak" was a one-hour television program which ran on the CBS television network from 1973 to 1978. Lieutenant Theo Kojak is a Greek-American New York City police detective. This episode is titled "Deliver Us Some Evil" and was first broadcast on February 13, 1974. The episode is about a pharmacy deliveryman who gets involved with a group of criminals who plan to rob the residence of a wealthy elderly woman. Included in the loot is a large valuable rare coin collection and some art.

Kenny Soames is a pharmacy delivery man who has a pretty and expensive girlfriend. He is a burglar who knows about numismatics and rare coins and will only steal coins. He has a regular fence Van Heusen who gives him names and addresses of specific rare coins to steal.

Kenny is known to the security guards of expensive apartments as a pharmacy delivery man. He enters the apartment of a wealthy couple and locates their coin collection.

Kenny has a note from his fence with a list of three coins to steal.

Kenny has a list of coins to steal from an apartment, a "Syracuse Decadrachm 75 BC", "Roman Aureus Elagabalus 103 AD", and a "Roman Aureus Blagablus 150 AD."

The dates are wrong, the Syracuse Decadrachm was minted from around BC 400 to 380. Elagabalus was a Roman emperor from AD 218 to 222, and "Blagablus" is either a fictional name or a version of "Elagabalus."

While in the the apartment, Kenny is confronted by the elderly woman resident, and when she tries to call the police, he kills her with a blow to the head. Kenny leaves with only one coin, and later someone discovers the body and calls the police.

The killing brings in Detective Lieutenant Kojak, who interviews the woman's husband. His wife had a coin collection inherited from her father and after searching it, the husband finds that a valuable coin is missing.

The coins in the tray are a combination of various common foreign coins. There are minor coins from Canada, Costa Rica, France, Israel, Kenya, Netherlands, Peru, and Thailand. There is also an ancient Greek coin which might be a modern copy and a small Roman denarius.

Missing is a "Roman Aureus of Elagabalus, worth $9,000." The thief left a more valuable Syracuse Dekadrachm, "worth $30,000."

Kenny takes his stolen coin to his fence Van Heusen who refuses to buy it because of the killing.

It appears to be an ancient Roman denarius of the emperor Elagabalus. Elagabalus is the modern name assigned to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus who was the Roman emperor from AD 218 to 222. He became emperor at the age of 14 and his short reign consisted of outrageous behavior including sexual deviancy and the promotion of Syrian gods. He had been a priest of the Syrian god Elagabal and he was given this name after he died. Elagabalus was murdered in AD 222.

Back in New York, Van Heusen hammers the evidence.

Van Heusen dramatically takes a hammer to the stolen coin to "destroy the evidence"

I hope that the prop was a fake. I really do.

Van Heusen refuses to pay Kenny for the coin.

"I had to kill to get that!"

Van Heusen suggests that Kenny join a much bigger heist he and his criminal associates have planned. He also asks Kenny to leave and not contact him again. He tells Kenny that if he wants to talk to him he will call Kenny's girlfriend Dede.

Kojak's detectives guess that the thief is a coin collector, compare names of delivery people with coin magazine subscribers, and find that Kenny is having coin magazines sent to his girlfriend.

Kenny has a girlfriend Dede who is pretty and expensive and also knows Van Heusen. She persuades him to join Van Heusen's big job, then with their share of the money, they can move to Argentina and live happily ever after.

Kenny needs money so he joins Van Heusen's heist. The target is wealthy Mrs. Farenkrug who lives in a mansion in Riverdale (New York City) and owns a collection of antiques and coins.

Kenny delivers oxygen cylinders to Mrs. Farenkrug.

Kenny persuades Mrs. Farenkrug's maid to give her some extra-strong sleeping pills so that she can have the day off to visit her brother. Kenny looks around the place, finds the locations of paintings, jewelry, and coins. The deceased Mr. Farenkrug stored his coins in wooden barrels, an unusual storage location for rare coins. Kenny finds a room full of antique china figurines.

A detective has been following Dede, who has visited an Argentine consulate asking for visas for herself, Kenny, and some other men.

Kenny gets a call from Van Huesen that the theft is going to happen.

One fence handles jewelry, one handles art, and Van Huesen gets the coins.

Kojak meets a former coin thief who is now working as a consultant to a museum. He tells Kojak that he has heard that a "big job" is being planned. Kojak's detectives inform him about Kenny's coin magazines.

The top magazine has an article on "Liberty Nickel Series." Some detectives now follow Kenny, he leads them to the mansion, the men arrive for the robbery, examine the goods, and load them into a van and drive off, arriving at a warehouse. Included are some barrels that the late Mr. Farenkrug kept rare coins in.

Kojak and his detectives arrive to arrest the crooks.

The police arrest the burglars and fences.

Kojak poses with two of the fences as a finale.

Telly Savalas as Lt. Theo Kojak
John Ritter as Kenny Soames
Ruth McDevitt as Mrs. Farenkrug
Karen Lamm as Dede
Director: Charles S. Dubin
Writers: Abby Mann, Robert M. Young