Christmas came and went in a flurry of turkey, presents, mince pies, cheese and booze. But with it in the post-Christmas-pre-New Year days which drag on and on came a nice coin which popped up in an online auction out of the blue. My first owl tetradrachm. For my eyes the compact flan alongside the style of both Athena and the owl suggest this is an Eastern imitation from the 4th century BC. I find the owl very charming with its big googly eyes, and the piece has a whole has a really lovely chunky feel to it (weight is c. 16.77g).
Nice patina on it. Attica, Athens (353 - 294 B.C) AR Tetradrachm O: Helmeted head of Athena right. Pi Style 3 R: AΘE Owl standing right, head facing, olive sprig and crescent to left; all within incuse square. 16.59g 21 mm Kroll -; HGC 4, 1599 Ex. Numismatik-Naumann, Auction 52, Lot 126
I'm not sure that it's necessarily an Eastern imitation. This is what the official Athenian ones look like from the "late Classical" period, c. 353-294 BCE ("pi-style palmette" types), rather than the "mass classical owls" struck about 100 years earlier (c. 454-404 BCE). They were struck on "folded flans." The best academic reference I know on these (quite readable though) is Kroll's (2011) "THE REMINTING OF ATHENIAN SILVER COINAGE, 353 B.C." -- available on JSTOR if you have access or sign up for free with your email -- or downloadable as pdf here. (Also, much of its substance is covered here on FORVM's Numiswiki, quoted directly in places, though not always adequately cited.) I think these ones below are all my current ones, in roughly chronological order (c. 454 - 84 BCE). As far as I know, only the two little ones (Drachm and Obol) are Eastern (Judaean/Philistian-Gazan) imitations. (I should mention that I'm not 100% certain of the authenticity of the holed late-classical 3rd century one since it's clearly been heavily modified for modern jewelry.)
That's a very nice 4th century, or intermediate owl. Your owl looks like it is a Pi-Style IV (Bingen Pi IV), 353 - c. 340 B.C. Here's a link to the page that discusses the varieties of intermediate owls: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=pi-style
