Between my wife and I : an owl story !!

Hi all,

Although I mainly focus on Roman, either republic or empire, and medieval Dombes, I can indulge myself with the occasionnal greek bronze. But my only greek silver so far is an obol that Santa brought last Xmas

A few weeks ago, I was staring at an Athena/owl tetradrachm shown off by a fellow member on a french forum, thinking "that's a kind of must have that I will certainly add to my trays....someday". But, as far as I can remember I've always had that kind of thoughts about that precise coin type.

Anyway, my wife suddenly arose behind me, saw the picture and said : "well, that's a nice coin for once (she doesn't particularily like roman coins, finding they all look alike. Should she collect, she would probably be a french royal or a french revolution person). It's your birthday very soon, find one like that and I buy it for you".

What would you do ?
I've been brave, and faced fate :



ATTICA, Athens. Circa 454-404 BC. AR Tetradrachm
Helmeted head of Athena right, with frontal eye
Owl standing right, head facing, olive sprig and crescent behind, all within incuse square. ΑΘΕ in the right field
24mm, 17.08 g, 8h
Ref : Kroll # 8; HGC # 4,1597

I find myself a very lucky person, having such a wonderful wife !

Please post any related item : greek silver, owl, bird, animal (yes Steve, any animal ) or any coin gift you've received from you wife, husband, partner, parents, kids...

Q

 

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Q, that's an outstanding example. Well-chosen, like the rest of your collection. And now there's also evidence to show that you did the same with the wife .

 

Excellent birthday present

 

Great wife and a great coin, congrats. Still need an Owl coin eventually.

 

Q,
You married what we say in fishing terms, a keeper. Congrats.
I have a chop marked owl taking that spot in my collection. Yours is a great example of an iconic coin.
My wife did not buy a coin for me, but she did buy something I could use with my coins. Now I have some learning to do. I read the book that came with the camera (in a thousand different languages), and decided I need a camera dictionary. There were too many abbreviations for words or phrases I did not understand to get much meaning other than how to set the date. The abbreviations are a bit like the old math joke:
The country boy said that his college math teacher was not so smart. The teacher said pie are square ( A = πR2 ). Everybody knows pie are round and corn bread are square.

 

Go for it. It's one of the better ones without banker's marks. Also, congrats for the excellent wife.

 

Awesome birthday gift. Greek owl coins are really pretty, its high on my want list among with a hundred other things.

 

That's a beautiful owl! My wife has thought several of mine were interesting, but she won't get me coins. My parents however, have no problem with it. They live over a thousand miles away so they prefer small gifts that are easy to ship. My mom tends to get me Vcoins gift cards and my dad asks me for a copy of my Vcoins wishlist.
This was a gift from my dad last year on my birthday:


Gift from him for Christmas:


And what I spent the Vcoins gift card my mom got me for Christmas on:

 

Huge congrats on the coin @Cucumbor and your wise decision to marry that wonderful lady!!

Not a 'gift' but with the kind understanding of my coin passion/addiction....

My only Attica owl type:

 

VCOIN GIFT CARDS??? I never looked! LOL, awesome! Now I know what to tell my kids...

 

One thing to keep in mind is that a handful of dealers don't allow them (but all my favorites do) and as far as I know there's no way to use multiple gift cards in the same transaction. You can use gift card + PayPal or CC, but as I found out, you can't use a $100 GC+$50 GC to pay for a $150+ order. Not a big deal, but not the kind of thing you want to find out when you pay for something where you need both to afford it.

 

Awesome on you @Cucumbor ... She must have stepped down marrying you!

Seriously, that would be an excellent gift, and meant in love.

My Attica Tets were my first foray into the world of Ancients back in the 90's... But, I love them as if I got them yesterday. And mine were for a song from a friend of mine... BANKERS MARKS and all! (Well, except for the one where the Owl is laying an EGG.)

 

One of these days I'll get me my first ancient coin.

Great post!!

 

Note the cute little owl perched on the helmet on the obverse:

 

I love these coins. I've sold my examples, and am always on the lookout for another.

 

Just in case anyone is not familiar with the type, Volodya's coin is a great example of a type that usually comes poorly struck and/or worn. Even his has lost face detail from the owl but many you see are just terrible. The standard Athenian owls exist in such numbers in every imaginable condition that you can find one that fits your requirements and budget. Finding an upgrade to the Rufus will be a bit of a job.

Mine has a decent Medusa but just an outline of the owl and still is not the worst one out there.

 

Love the type, impossible to get 100% perfect like Doug mentioned.

My Cordius Rufus, ex Nicolas 1977.

 

Something I had not noticed before: The reverse legend starts at a different point on each of the three coins shown (all different dies). My coin and the Seaby RSC plate coin have the MN at the bottom (6 o'clock) and the D at the top (12 o'clock). Volodya's has them at 10 and 4. Carthago's is 11 and 5. The fact that my coin matched the book I looked at first probably made me think they were all that way. Wrong! Banti shows 19 examples with several too low grade to tell but certainly showing mine is most common but there are several others. It seems the die cutter paid no attention to 'up' when cutting this reverse.

My apology to those who see no interest in such minor trivia but my hobby (not the devil) is in the details.

 

Very nice owl!! there is mine, with a hack near the chest of the owl in the field.

 

@Cucumbor great wife and coin. Lots of interesting coins here.

Athena has a little owl hanging out on this one...

Thessalian League, 2nd-1st BC
AE, trichalkon, 20mm, 5.3g; 12h
Obv.: Laureate head of Apollo right
Rev.: ΘΕΣΣ / ΛΩΝ; Athena Itonia striding right, hurling spear held in her right hand, shield on her left arm; ΘΡΑ in right field above, owl in left