The owl of my childhood dreams

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Nerva, Jun 2, 2017.

  1. Nerva

    Nerva Well-Known Member

    No, UK dealer at London fair. Maybe he got it from NC!
     
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  3. JL Patterson

    JL Patterson Member

  4. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    That is an owl to be proud of!

    Nicer by a long shot than my modest example:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  5. Nerva

    Nerva Well-Known Member

    I like the more archaic style of yours. Mine is lonely. He'd love to have a few more in different styles to keep him company. It's interesting how the style is picked up in some much later Roman Republican coins.
     
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  6. chrsmat71

    chrsmat71 I LIKE TURTLES!

    that's a top shelf example, worth the wait!
     
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  7. rrdenarius

    rrdenarius non omnibus dormio

    Great coin @Nerva . Welcome.
    I like that your reverse is all on the flan and not chopped (like mine). I think it is interesting that people who handled these coins 2000+ years ago respected Athena enough that test cuts were on the reverse, but it is really hard to find a full Athena obverse.
     
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  8. Alegandron

    Alegandron "ΤΩΙ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΙ..." ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ, June 323 BCE

    Welcome @Nerva ! Nice opening... great Owl! Would had expected you to open with a Nerva! :D

    My Owls are well circulated, and well proven by the bankers! I KNOW they are real!

    Athens Owl 16.8g  22x6-5mm.jpg
    Athens Owl AR Tet 17.4g  20.4mm x 7.5mm edge-crud.jpg
    Athens Owl AR Tet 17.3g  22.9mm x 6.8mm thick crud.jpg
    Athens Owl AR Tet 17.2g  22mm x 6.7mm thick.jpg
     
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  9. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    Lovely coin! A real museum piece!
     
  10. Bing

    Bing Illegitimi non carborundum Supporter

  11. Nerva

    Nerva Well-Known Member

    What a wonderful group. I think the banker's marks and test cuts add character, and I want to get a small group of these. I like mixing a few really good coins with some more characterful specimens.
     
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  12. Alegandron

    Alegandron "ΤΩΙ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΙ..." ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ, June 323 BCE

    They are some of the first Ancients that I captured. I like that the bankers marks are even on Athena's face. Ergo, they probly travelled outside the Greek world in their transactions...
     
  13. Carl Wilmont

    Carl Wilmont Well-Known Member

    athens tetradrachm.jpg It's interesting to see all the variations of owls and banker's marks. Lots of good examples here! I just purchased this "classical" owl. Opinions?

    athens tetradrachm.jpg
     
  14. TIF

    TIF Always learning.

    A great-looking example, particularly the reverse, with excellent centering on both sides :)
     
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  15. Nerva

    Nerva Well-Known Member

    THank you. I love your avatar coin!
     
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  16. Bing

    Bing Illegitimi non carborundum Supporter

    Once again I find I have to agree with @TIF. Your owl @Carl Wilmont is extremely nice.
     
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  17. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    Excellent example of the most popular Classical style. It would sell for a bit more if it had a bit more room on the top showing all the crest but gaining that usually comes at the expense of crowding the nose or the bottom. The owl side is close enough to perfect to suit most everyone.

    I see it has been a couple years since you were last here. What is the next coin in your quest?
     
    Carl Wilmont likes this.
  18. Sallent

    Sallent Live long and prosper

    Only one owl here for me

    Attica Athena Owl Tet.jpg
     
  19. Carl Wilmont

    Carl Wilmont Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the comments, TIF, Bing, and Doug! When I was searching for one of these coins, I did decide to compromise on the crest on the obverse if I could get the rest of the profile and a good reverse.

    I've not posted recently, but am still reading and absorbing learnings from experts here. Great on-line community! Hope to be able to contribute more as I gain knowledge. One of the things that I recently learned about as I read some old posts is "tooling." As I expand my collection, I am trying to build some recognition of that. I also looked at examples of the results of this practice at the excellent forum ancient coins site. Lots to watch out for as a collector- authenticity, pricing, tooling/smoothing, etc. In addition to learning from folks like yourselves, I have been building a library of books on ancient coins (I have 18 so far). That's another piece of advice that I may have seen on this forum- buy the book before you buy the coin.

    Doug, my focus remains on coins related to Bible times. I have several Judean and first century Roman coins. I'm working on getting some coins associated with places that Paul traveled as well. I stretched my typical budget for this tetradrachm, and two of the next coins in my quest are also pricey ones: a coin of Herod Antipas and a shekel of Tyre.

     
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  20. Carl Wilmont

    Carl Wilmont Well-Known Member

    That's also a nice, well-centered coin! Is this one from the Hellenistic period?
     
  21. stevex6

    stevex6 Random Mayhem

    Man ... owls are so cool, eh?

    owl.jpg

    => congrats to all of the coin-owl examples (coins are awesome)

    *edit* ... thread-timing is everything, eh?

    => Carl Wilmont => Godspeed
     
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