Transitional Athens owl question

OOOOOPS !!! My error okay From what I can see from the on line sources Doug Smiths Obol looks like a Starr Group V Coin which would place it being minted from about 465- to 454 B.C. These coins do not seem to be subdivided and can be very tricky ( I saw a number of then identified as Starr Group III). The HGC photos are not very helpful with these coins so I make this attribution with a great deal of trepidation. The book cited by Nathan P is indeed the book I cite. It is a useful guide for the massive 454-404 B.C. Athenian coinage. Mind you it is the only one that actually attempts to do so.

 

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It is in French. You won't find a lot of bridging coins V to mass coinage there. Even if you don't understand French it is still worth having it. Send an email to the address in the page and they will tell you how to pay etc http://numismatica.fltr.ucl.ac.be/

It costs 50 euros plus shipping. You can find it in mashops for 70 euros and probably easier ways of payment but it is worth supporting the researchers if you buy it from UCL.

 

I would simply add that historically there have been two different uses or opinions of the term "transitional." When I first started collecting owls 20 years ago, dealer use of "transitional" was typically applied to nearly ALL Starr owls, save for perhaps the earliest two Groups. The term was generally applied as Starr owls being "transitional" between "archaic" and "standard" owl types. But I think that with the large hoard that was marketed about 10 years ago, and now with the recent huge find currently on the market, dealers have become a bit more knowledgeable and now attempt to attribute Starr owls by their proper Groups, and now refer to "tranisitional" owls as EARLY "standard" owls, i.e. those with some Starr Group V characteristics (similar Athena, "fat" owl), but with a single-prong tail. With all the new specimens, and new dies, now available, this particular sub-group with a great variety of stylistic variations is turning into a fascinating area of study. As a side note, there is a peculiar style of owl in which the owl's claws are slanted to the right that is being marketed as "the earliest transitional" (standard) owls that I think time will prove to be actually later in the run or perhaps of non-Athenian origin. At any rate, the recent hoards have proven to be massively interesting from a die-study perspective.

 

Harlan Berk used to sell the Flament book; I don't know if it is still available or not.

 

To quell any argument, my Owl opted to hide his tail !


Athens Attica 454-404 BCE AR hemidrachm16mm 2.08g Athena frontal eye - facing Owl wings closed olive branches COP 70 SG 2528

I really like that Obol Owl, @dougsmit !