Greece (Attica): ca. 440-404 BC silver "Owl" tetradrachm of Athens NGC AU; Strike 4/5, Surface 4/5. Cert. #6707874-001. Weight: 17.21 g. Ex-"ArtDeco", CoinTalk, private transaction, 25 December 2022. Purchased raw. 075000
Very nice coin! It looks fantastic. I am blessed to have one, too. It's not as nice as yours, but far better than I thought I'd be able to have.
Thanks! I got a terrific deal on it. Despite being a collector for over 45 years at the point I bought that, I had never owned an Athenian owl. I was waiting for the right one, at the very narrow intersection of my taste and budget. Then that one sort of fell into my lap as part of a deal I simply couldn’t turn down. It found me, you might say.
Your owl has excellent centering. All too often some of the central detail falls off the flan, given the generally narrow ones that Athens used. I guess they were easier to produce, since broadness was not a prime consideration, with the millions that were minted over the course of a few decades in the later part of the 5th century BCE. Here's an owl that seems to have been something of an experiment using a small obverse die to capture the full design. The reverse die is normal is size. Athens, Attica, tetradrachm after 449 BCE 17.14 grams Here's the owl with one that is more typical, but I think it is somewhat earlier, given the higher relief. Which obverse is the most attractive? I like the top owl with the high relief, good centering and nice style. I've never seen another owl with an undersized obverse die, so apparently this was a short lived variant.