I finally bought the famous ancient coin

Are ancient coins ever 3rd party graded? Does NGC or PCGS grade ancients?

What's the best way to avoid a counterfeit?

 

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Yes, NGC & ANACS "grade" ancients but with ancients you cant really put a grade on them as each piece is unique. They also dont guarantee them like they do U.S./world either.

Lastly ancient collectors, most anyways, do not like them in slabs. Part of the fun is holding something 1700+ years old. The rules with U.S. and so on dont apply to ancients as much.

Best way to avoid fakes is to learn/look at real examples and dont be afraid to ask.

 

I saw this one (shown on the left below) for $649 ... how do you know what a good price is?

Also they said there was a "test cut" on the owl ... what does that mean?
Do they actually cut open the coin to see if it's genuine or something?

Comparing the coin I found (left) with the OP's coin (right),
you can see his coin is in much better condition with quite a bit more detail.

 

To know more about test cuts, check out the below link below. Its a quick read.

http://dougsmith.ancients.info/feac7.html

 

Oh Gawd how could they slash that Owl like that. Vandals !!!!!

 

thanks for the link ... makes sense now

it's a shame they cut right through the owl though

 

Haha yeah it is but I doubt when they were doing it that the coin would be around thousands of years later.

 

They would have been more squeamish about cutting into the head of the goddess on the obverse.

Ah, the good old days, when it was worth checking if your coins were made out of quality precious metals.

 

Compare these two coins and you may see why some people felt the test cuts were needed:



Not as a collector but as a man on the street expecting 16 g. of good silver, which coin would you accept?

 

The scene: Athens, 2400 years ago.

The coin: #2.

Vendor: Hey, what kinda scam are you trying to pull on me, mister?

Customer: It's solid silver, I swear! You just cut it wrong!

Vendor: I sell quality amphorae here, and I only accept real money! Get lost!

No sale.

 

Beautiful coins when were they minted?

 

copper core = another lost charriot hub cap sale

 

More than 2400 years old

My Athens, silver tetradrachm "owl," is supposed to be from 449-413 BC. That’s more than 4 Centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

As a background, these coins we so famous due to the massive quanties of high quality silver produced by Athens from its Laurion silver mines. Getting access to these mines was what enabled Athens to enjoy its golden age of Democracy, literature, philosophy, etc. They funded building the Acropolis. These were produced in such massice numbers that in many parts of the world they WERE money, everything else was inferior. This led these coins to be massively copied locally, and you can find similar types being produced in ancient Israel, the near middle east, Arabia, etc. The closest thing to these in modern history would be the 8 reales pieces from Spain and her colonies that circulated around the globe and were accepted nearly everywhere in the world as good silver.

Chris

 

Here's mine:



Athens Attic Classical Owl Tetradrachm
Obverse: Head of Athena right with beaded necklace
Reverse: Owl leaning right, head facing, olive twig and crescent moon
Struck c. BC 430
Weight: 17.18g

From Harlan J. Berk in Chicago

 

Beautiful piece.

I could have bought one in the $700 a few times over but as pointed out earlier in the thread, I would rather buy multiple coins for the same price over just 1. Thats why I keep putting off these $200-$400 each purchases on my u.s. type set.

 

Awesome nice looking coin. Your coin is more nicely centered than mine. Of course, I haven't seen either coin in hand but yours looks sweet.

 

The really high priced ones will be the owls with larger flans and centerd so that you can see all of the helmet crest details. Look at a catalog of them and see how many meet that definition. Very few.

Btw, all of these owls here are very nice. Mine has a test cut, but I thought it gave the coin character, (and a lower price).

 

Amazing coins with an amazing history. I've added it to my buy list.

 

The Athena Owl coin arrived today. Here are photos taken at my desk. It has a very nice deep strike & is very 3 dimensional.