Hello All, In order to keep making myself more insane and keep everyone busy in the meantime, I am working on another Greek coin. This time I have a possible match. The coin is pretty straightforward. Helmeted head of Athena, right. No obverse legend. Owl standing left, wings closed on the reverse. No apparent reverse legend. Possible control marks of C in left field and Lambda in right field. Also possible is VLEH to left. With that in mind, I think this is Sambon 44 from Velia Lucania. It appears that along the top edge of the reverse there could be the remains of a leaf pattern like from the olive branch described in the WW description. I am not sure. But there are similar helmeted Athenas on the Velia coinage along with owls. The problem again here is that I am searching "Athena" "Owls" "AE". I also checked Pergamon in Mysia because there are similar owl coins from there that I have some experience with. No matches. Mind you, when you search for "Athena" or "Owl" in Greek coins you also might as well search the word "the" or "Greek" because you will get 20,000 results. So, needless to say, I am still in amateur hour over here and trying to develop a process which results in me being able to efficiently start with an unknown coin, run it through a gauntlet of references and come out with an ID. Any opinions or help on this little lady would be helpful. Velia, Lucania page: http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/lucania/velia/t.html Pergamon, Mysia page, for additional information/ruling out: http://wildwinds.com/coins/greece/mysia/pergamon/t.html Thanks again everyone! Shout out to TIF for all of the help with my last Greek mystery coin!
Once I finish all of these bad boys, then I plan on doing the Chicago Coin Expo thread of my neat little buys from there.
Not certain by a long shot, but glancing through the pages you provided I would say it looks more like Mysia to me.
What's the size of your Athena/Owl? That might help eliminate some options. I'm having some luck in CNG's archives and ACsearch using the search combination "AE, Athena right, owl left"... or at least I'm not getting unwieldy numbers of hits. There are more issuing cities than I realized for this design. Higher resolution, in-focus images might help (and might not ) Bronze coins with Athena bust right/owl standing left were struck in, and probably some others I've missed: ARKADIA, Tegea AKARNANIA, Argos Amphilochikon AKARNANIA, Thyrrheion ATTICA, Athens CILICIA, Seleukeia CILICIA, Seleucia ad Calycadnum LUCANIA, Velia Some on this list can be effectively ruled out because of other things, such as an abundance of legend or letters which your coin probably doesn't have. I saw many others with Athena and/or the owl facing the wrong way, so it is possible that those cities struck coins with Athena and the owl facing the same directions as your coins. I don't think it is from Pergamum. On those small bronze coins with Athena/owl, the owl is standing on a palm frond and its wings are spread. Maybe you've seen different Mysia examples that look like yours? ... My best guess for your coin is Attica (unless the size is way off): ATTICA, Athens. Circa 307-300 BC. Æ 16mm (3.11 g). Helmeted head of Athena right / Owl standing left within wreath. Kroll 50. VF, brown patina. ATTICA, Athens. Circa 307-300 BC. Æ 15mm (3.77 g, 1h). Helmeted head of Athena right / Owl standing left, head facing, within olive wreath. Kroll 50; SNG Copenhagen 94. VF, dark green patina. There's also a smaller version of this style of coin (AE12) on the Athens page of Wildwinds.
Wow, nicholas => that's a cute OP Lucania, Velia owl ... congrats!! Ummm, I also have an example from Lucania, Velia => it's this cool AR Nomos Oh, and if it ends-up being something different, then I'll quickly try to change my post!
I have a few AE Owls... Sicily Kalakte AE unit 2nd C BCE Head Athena in Helmet - Owl rev RARE Sicily Kamarina AE 15mm 3.4g 420-405 BCE Athena Owl Lizard 3 dots Sear Gk 1063 SICILY Kamarina Æ Onkia 13mm 1.5g 420-405 BC Gorgoneion tongue - KAMA owl r lizard in claw pellet in ex SNG München 411 Athens 224-198 BC AE 12 Athena 2 Facing Owls RARE Agora 71
Sorry, I forgot to put the diameter in the OP. It's 15.0mm. Which puts it in the realm of many AE coins with the Athena/owl combo. I agree that I had to rule out Pergamon, Mysia because the owl is usually on a palm and wings are open as noted by TIF. The Attica coins could very well be it except for the control marks/letters to the bottom left. I see no HO to the bottom left of my mystery coin. Also no control mark to the top right. Sorry that my pictures are the best I can do with an iPhone. One thing that made me think it could be Velia was that if you look closely to the top left of the owl sort of directly across from the breast you see what looks like remnants of a V. But then again maybe an additional V next to it if you are moving upwards toward the face.
