Finally acquired a copy of Charles Seltman's milestone reference on Athenian Coinage before 480 BC

This is not an east reference to acquire, and my copy does have some mileage on it. Nor was it cheap, at $150, for a 1974 reprint. Still, this is a key reference for anyone interested in the coinage of Athens in the sixth century BC, to the Persian invasion of 480 BC.

It is a truly impressive work, not only for the plates, which are quite extensive and of decent quality for photos taken nearly 100 years ago. It is also impressive in the area of historical scholarship, spanning the rulers and politics of Athens, as well as the evolution of her economy and monetary development. The information on the punch and anvil dies, and the linking of these dies to specific coins is very impressive.

This book arrived yesterday. I ordered another copy a few weeks ago, but that order fell through with the seller, quite frustrating. So I opted for this copy, which, as you can see, is not in the best of shape, especially for the cover, but, overall, the book is acceptable. Also the pages are somewhat yellowed - apparently the publishers did not use acid-free paper, a shame for such an important and scholarly work.

I added a few of my archaic owls to the photo that I now hope to assign to a Seltman group.

It should be added, however, even though this book has extensive plates, it is by no means comprehensive. New owls appear that often do not conform to a specific group, as presented in this work. Additionally, the dating of these groups have been revised, later, than attributed in this reference. This is not a resolved issue, and may never be.



Here are a few more pages:







So, please post your favorite owl or Athens reference or other work, or any other reference or coins, if you so desire.

Thank you

 

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Nice book pickup, @robinjojo.

Thanks for a snapshot of one of the pages. I always thought this type is of a Near Eastern version of an archaic owl, but seems it is Greek in origin.

 

Nice find! I always chuckle at those archaic types - so cartoonish to our modern sensibilities.

 

That odd looking owl to the upper right, with the pugnacious profile of Athena, does look like a "Paeonian" type, but the weight is very low, at 13.03 grams. I scanned the weights of the coins in the plates, it the lowest seems to be 15.45 grams, still well above 13.03 grams. This coin is a head scratcher, and might send it David Sear. I can't imagine a coin leaving a mint at that weight, but then again I guess it is possible.

 

They do have character, if not the refinement of latter issues, especially the early classical owls.

What you are looking at in the posted coin plate are coins from what Seltman called the Paeonia Mint, whose emissions were among the crudest and least refined of the archaic owls.

Aesthetics was clearly not a top priority with these archaic coins, generally speaking, which, for me, adds to their appeal overall.

 

Well, it took some time for the Paeonian tribes to become fully Hellenized. It only stands to reason that their first attempts at die cutting would be crude. In time they would produce some lovely coins in "High Greek" style.

 

Actually, though, if you look at the artistic style used in the sixth century BC in Athens, and elsewhere, you would see that this use of the exaggerated nose, profile eye (with or without a pupil) lack of a forehead, small lips and chin appear on pottery and frescos of the time. This style can be seen on the dust jacket of the book in the OP. Also as shown below on this vase from the Met collection:

Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora, ca. 530 B.C.



When it came to producing the dies for the obols, drachms, didrachms, tetradrachms and other denomination, the die cutting skills varied greatly and usually towards little refinement and downright crudeness. That, coupled with problematic flans, metal quality and careless minting contribute to the rough nature of many of these coins.

 

Interesting. So the Paeonian imitations were an attempt at faithfully copying the Athenian aesthetic currently in vogue?

 

Yes, generally the artistic style at the time, the Ionian style, typically had the features that I described.

Here's a page from Steltman's book that discusses hair style used for Athena's profile. The page is a little curved, but it is mostly readable. If you click on the image it will enlarge.

 

I want to add some more information on the classification that Seltman uses to distinguish group assignments. I really have not started reading this work in depth, instead skipping around to various chapters and especially looking at the plates.

There are groups labeled Civic, Imperial, Paeonia, and Delphi, Attic and Cleruchy for the owls. These groups are assigned letters which are supposed to correspond to the time of production, from the earliest, 561 BC, to 480 BC for the archaic types.

Here are the groups by letter for the owls. Note that Group N includes transitional archaic owls, and Group O includes early transitional classical owls.

Group C, Attic Mint 561-556 BC
Group E, Paeonia, 555-546 BC
Group F, Paeonia, 546-536 BC (Distinguished from Group E on stylistic differences, especially with the obverse, the Group F owls having more of a modeling of the cheek and chin).
Group G, Gi, Imperial Mint, 546-527 BC, Ionic Style
Group G, Gii, Imperial Mint, 527-510 BC, Doric Style (Again, stylistic changes from sub-Group Gii in terms of larger head and other obverse design features).
Group H, Civic Mint, 527-510 BC (This group includes two very distinctive owls that he classifies as Delphi).
Group L, Civic Mint, 506-490 BC
Group M, Attic Mint, 506-490 BC
Group N, Imperial Mint 490-480 BC (Note - This group comprises the first owls with olive leaves above the forehead of Athena).
Group O, Civic Mint, circa 486 BC (Early classical owls, including the decadrachm issues).
Group P, Cleruchy in Euboea, 506-490 BC (These crude ("rough") archaic owls were minted by Athenians living in Euboea, patterning their coins after Group L owls).

Selman also has a few plate examples of non-Athenian and barbarous owl imitations.

So, based on this information and looking at the plates, I think this owl is probably a Group Gi type:

 

Thanks for listing the Seltman groups, @robinjojo

I wonder if my off-center archaic owl fits into one of those groups.

 

That is a really nice coin. The centering is very good for this type with excellent metal and surfaces. The obverse, in particular is excellent. I've seen examples that are extremely off center and of low metal quality.

Your coin might be a Group Gii owl. The modeling of the profile seems larger than my Gi owl, and higher relief, which is one way to distinguish them.

I'm by no means an expert, and there are more variations of these coins than there are fleas on the back of a dog. I need to do more research on it, and it is late, so I will try to do this tomorrow.

 

Okay, I examined your coin, and I think it corresponds to Seltman Group Gii, A182.

Here's the plate. Sorry about the reflection, flash image.



Here's a more detailed photo:



I think the reverse die might be P226, but that's hard to tell, and the obverse of your coin could be paired with another punch die. I do think the the obverse, A182, is very close to that of your coin.

Here's some information on how Seltman distinguishes the two sub-groups of G, Gi and Gii:





Finally, here is the Gii table for your coin, A182, which Seltman links to A181, stylistically:

 

Many thanks for your additional information, @robinjojo
I'll rewrite my coin label.

 

Congratulations, this is an excellent study as we await the new corpus to be published by Gil Davis.

Even if some discussions remain regarding the absolute chronology, since Kraay, the relative sequence of the groups makes consensus :

Group H (525/10 - 515/05 BC)
Group L (515/05 - 500/490 BC)
Group M (500/490 - 485/82 BC)
Group Gi ( id.)
Group Gii ( id.)
Group C (482 - 480 BC)
Group F (id.)
Group E (480 BC)

My Seltman Group L #330 (A214/P275), Svoronos pl.6 11

 

I won't show my archaic owl again, but I have a copy of the original of this book from 1924 (I think). It has tissue guards over the prints.

I found it in an Ernglish online book store. It is ex Christchurch library at Oxford University, with their stamps etc. I really like the provenance.

Also have a copy of Greek Coins by Kraay & Hirmer which is ex Meyrick Library at Oxford also.

Anyway, well done on acquiring a copy and love looking at other people's archaic coins.

 

That is an excellent coin!

Yes, the dating of the archaic coins has undergone revisions since Seltman's book was published in 1924.

Some owls, such as the one below, do not fit the groups, at least regarding the hair style.

This coin has a distinct zig-zag or wave-like group of lines running parallel to the brow. Initially I could not match it with any of the groups, but I eventually found a similar coins in Group M, but the lines, from what I can tell, are not at sharp angles, such as is the case with this coin, but I guess that's just stylistic variation at work.

This coin came from Kirk Davis, Catalog 75.