Weighing just 1.89 g., this silver tiny coin has the famous ancient Greek owl on reverse. The obverse must show helmeted Athena with those charming almond-shaped eyes. Still.. This is something strange but superb for me to own. Hope you like it ?
That is a VERY nice owl... features on both sides are great! I have one that I got from @Valentinian , this is my tiniest Owl: Tyre 1/16th shekel 10mm 0.47g 425-394 BCE hippocamp l over waves - owl with crook flail Sear Greek 5916. BMC Tyre 43 SNG Danish 302
very nice owl coin! and @Alegandron's got an owl AND a crab!.. i have neither on any yet..great coins fellas.
Charles... what denomination do you think it is? Have you found any similarly sized Attica fractionals with that iconography? I'm concerned about this coin.
Thank you very much TIF for your scientific concern. I love that. In fact I fortunately acquired this coin with several others from the same seller. So far I previously posted one of them yesterday and it happened to be a rare bronze coin of Augustus Caesar (My luck.. I'm ashamed to tell how much I paid for it). Here are 2 other tiny coins, possibly of the same category. Hope we could attribute them. They weigh respectively 1.71 g. and 1.56 g.
Small size is not so much a problem. Style is. Sear lists a 1/8 obol with the type but I have never seen one that I believed was from Athens rather that the ancient East or modern fakers. Hemiobols are the smallest denomination of the design we see regularly. The style here is not Athenian. 1.86g is closest to a hemidrachm which used the facing owl type at Athens. I suppose you can argue that it might be a barbarous or ancient copy from the East but I will consider it modern until shown where I am missing something. This is my smallest side view owl at 0.22g which is possibly a much abused hemiobol of Athens or an Eastern copy. In this condition, I really don't claim to know. I bought this so long ago I don't have records (pre computer) and only recorded that it came from a show in Maryland. In those days, I did not write down the dealer's name. A hemidrachm/triobol (same thing) uses the facing owl with wings folded down. This one weighs 1.98g which seems reasonable considering the wear. Nice ones sold by CNG and listed online tend to weigh very close to 2.12g. I am amazed sometimes at the consistent weight of some of the smallest coins. I would be equally concerned about all three and any other coins offered by this seller. We need an expert (I do not claim to be an expert any more than TIF does) to step up and vouch for these coins.
Thanks Master Doug for your expected concern and prompt general reply. I already opened conversation with sister TIF who seems to have some computer problems. I told her that my digital camera will soon be ready to shoot all these coins. But before that .. please allow me to post 2 more tiny coins which seem very important , I guess. Here's the first one that weighs only 66 cg. The second one will follow in 10 minutes.
I had similar thoughts as well. For me it seemed too nice for the type. The new coins posted seem to confirm my suspicions.
I really can't saw the Phoenician fraction is good or bad from the image but I do not like the Alexander any better than the first two. They seem the same style while they should not since they differ in time and place.
Good morning from here where it's half past noon o'clock. Weather is very suitable for photography with that excessively shining sun which was worshiped by Elagabalus. I won't be more big mouth than this.. And Here are the photos.
As you notice, I shot 3 tiny coins out of five. The 2 that I didn't shoot are those which I harshly cleaned yesterday before scanning and posting them here. Also for the Macedonian, I omitted by mistake to shoot the reverse. As for the 4th bronze coin, I acquired it together with the rare bronze coin of Augustus Caesar, previously posted. I owe you for your patience and sincerity, not to forget your wit. Thank you.
Sorry, I'm inclined to doubt these coins also. As Doug noted, the Alex and the Athens have the same fabric & style; given that they came from the same dealer, this raises suspicions that they may come from the engraver too. In addition, I can't find anything of similar style on acsearch for the Alex. On the other hand, I did find three coins somewhat similar to your Athenian. Hirsch identifies theirs as as hemidrachm from the 5th or 4th c. BCE, "Unediert?" (I'm guessing this means "possibly unofficial"? In which case they agree the style doesn't seem right.) Gorny & Mosch think theirs was a rare archaic trihemiobol. Bertolami presented this one as a rare imitation from Judaea. (If it's real, the jury is still deciding what it is!) Still, these are only somewhat similar to your coin. I note that your Athena looks rather more jolly, and has a very disheveled helmet crest by comparison.
@SA.. I couldn't expect a better interpretation than this. Indeed , more and more, I feel myself proud to belong to this great site. BTW.. I'm still awaiting Master Doug's final answer about the Phoenician(Persian) coin above, which weighs 0.66 g.
