Adopted An OWL, Finally!

After almost 10 years in ancients, I finally joined the Athens Owl Tetradrachm club.

Thanks to @MerlinAurelius for it.

I also noticed there is different styles, is this a Pi-Style?


Attica, Athens (353 - 294 B.C)
AR Tetradrachm
O: Helmeted head of Athena right
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

 

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Sweet Mat! I'm very jealous.

 

I've owned a few, but have sold them all. One of them was one I shouldn't have let go, too. Nice coin!

 

Nice addition @Mat!

These Athenian owls are my favorite coin type.

 

@Mat That is so sweet! Congrats pal

 

Nice one @Mat. I still only have the one that looks like Jean Stapleton in All In the Family.

 

I have not seen Oded Paz here in a very long while. If memory serves me correctly he had a passion for owls also. Very nice.

 

Nice ones Curtis and JW.

 

I saw some of those in the CT for sale section. Good selection and pretty good prices, from what I could tell. I’m not in the club yet. One day…

Nice pick up.

 

Yes, for this era of Athens owl tets ("Intermediate" owl tets) someone (or many someones) divided them into groups based on the helmet ornament which somewhat resembles the letter pi. I can't tell which pi type yours is but maybe in hand you can see more of the device.

For more on the Intermediate Period owl tet "pi" decorations, see:

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Pi-Style

...

As a quick review for others, Athens "owl tets" were issued over a period of time stretching from ~510 BCE to ~200 BCE (or even into the mid second century BCE), with the "New Style" owl tets being produced 164-42 BCE.

All have Athena on the obverse and an owl on the reverse, with a wide array of styles over time, most radically changing with the "New Style" tets. The nomenclature isn't consistent across the body of research, but a basic breakdown is below. Within each category there are many other classifications. The massive output and number of extant coins has of course led to extensive study and opinions.

All examples below are from CNG's archives.

Archaic period, ~510-480 BCE.
https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=349574


"Transitional" owl tet, c. late 470s through the early 450s BCE (although the term "transitional" is also sometimes used for a specific type of later style). @AncientJoe has a marvelous example of this type. Here's a CNG example:


"Classical" owl tet, ~454-393 BCE; divided into several subtypes. Also called "mass emission" owl tets. Curtisimo's tet is a "classical" owl tet. A CNG example:


"Intermediate" owl tets, sometimes called "late classical", "Hellenistic", or "transitional", c. 393 BCE to early 2nd century BCE. Among other differences, note that Athena's eye is now in a more realistic profile rather than almond-shaped. Mat and Bing's tets are of this period. There are many contemporary imitations in this style (from Arabia and Persia, for instance).
A CNG example:


Finally, the "New Style" owl tets, c. 164 -42 BCE.
A CNG example:


A good article for an overview of owl tets:
http://athenianowlcoins.reidgold.com/

 

Oh man, that's awesome...nice @Mat !

#10 on the Great Ancient Coins list! BOOM!

 

Since you've given me an excuse to do so I can also post my new "New Style" as well... you know, for reference purposes

 

That's a real beauty @Curtisimo, especially compared to mine:

 

Thank you I really like yours too @Bing. Very nice toning and a very nicely rendered owl to boot!

 

I actually want a new style too.

And @TIF, I think mine falls in style 3 or 4. Hard to tell.

 

Congrats on joining the 'Athens Owl Tetradrachm Club'!

A very cool coin!

 

Budget owl tet with free testcut for $ 200

 

I am down to my last two owls. I parted with the other 4 that I owned.

I have a transitional one that I find very appealing:-

Athens, AR Tetradrachm

Obv:– Head of Athena right with eye seen in true profile, wearing crested helmet ornamented with three olive leaves and floral scroll
Rev:– owl standing right, head facing, to right ATE in large lettering, to left olive sprig and crescent
Minted in Athens c. B.C. 393 - 370.
Reference:– Flamen p. 126, 1 (Pi I); Svoronos Athens plate 19, 17; SNG Cop -
Ex-Forum Ancient Coins
16.699g, 24.31mm, 270o

The following information was provide by the dealer with the coin:-

"Transitional style tetradrachms include all of the wide spectrum of variants with the eye in profile issued after the classic "old style" almond eye tetradrachms but before the broad thinner flan "new style" tetradrachms. Recent research has classified variations of the transitional style - Pi Type, Quadridigité Style, Heterogeneous Style and sub-groups of the styles, and proposed chronologies for the different styles and groups.

This coin is the earliest transitional type, the first Pi style type, essentially identical to the "old style" with the exception of the eye in profile. The "Pi" designation is based on the P shape of the floral spiral and palmette ornamentation on the helmet bowl. The coin can be classified as Pi style, group 1. The floral ornament on examples this early do not yet resemble Pi."



The other is a bit of a cheat in that it is an Egyptian imitative but I love it simply because it is imitative:-

Egypt, Athens Imitative, Silver tetradrachm

Obv:– Head of Athena right, droopy eye, crested helmet with olive leaves and bent-back palmette, wire necklace, round earring, hair in parallel curves.
Rev:– ΑΘΕ, right, owl standing right, head facing, erect in posture, olive sprig and crescent left, all within incuse square;
Minted in Egypt from . B.C. 420 - 380.
Reference:– cf. SNG Cop 31 ff., SGCV I 2526 (Athens),

Ex- Forum Ancient Coins. The metal did not fill the die completely on the obverse resulting in the rough flat high area near Athena's temple. A test cut on the reverse was filled with pitch in antiquity.

The silver is quite bright making it relatively tricky to photograph.

From the Harald Ulrik Sverdrup Collection. Ex CNG. From a small hoard of 5 Athenian and 4 Athenian imitative issues.

Comment provided by Forum -
"Athenian tetradrachms with this droopy eye and bent back palmette have been identified as Egyptian imitative issues because they are most frequently found in Egypt and rarely in Greece.

Early in his reign the Egyptian Pharaoh Hakor, who ruled from 393 to 380 B.C., revolted against his overlord, the Persian King Artaxerxes. In 390 B.C. Hakor joined a tripartite alliance with Athens and King Evagoras of Cyprus. Persian attacks on Egypt in 385 and 383 were repulsed by Egyptian soldiers and Greek mercenaries under the command of the Athenian general Chabrias. Perhaps these coins were struck to pay the general and his Greek mercenaries."

17.157g, 25.3mm, 270o



Martin

 

What is this list of Great Ancient Coins?

I’m unfamiliar with this list. Where can I find it?

 

COOOoool @Mat. Nice one! Joined the club. You can now send me the Annual Membership Dues...

I like mine with Banker's marks... especially when they were smacked onto Athena's face which was a BIG NO-NO! So, they had to have circulated OUTSIDE the Greek World, or Athena would had ZAPPED them!
They are some of my first Ancients captures, and I liked them as they were DIFFERENT from most the other collected Owl Tets.

Athens Owl 16.8g 22x6-5mm Intermediate owl Tet late classical Hellenistic transitional c 393 BCE-early 2nd C BCE