Athena & Owl Drachm is scarce compared to Athena & Owl Tetradrachms

We attended the Westchester NY coin show yesterday and came home with a half dozen new ancient coins ! Yep, six new ancient coins to post this week.

This one is for my Athens owl collection. This owl collection is slowly growing. It now includes a new style tet, a classic tet, a drachm, an obol, and a tet loaded with test cuts & banker’s marks. I took these photos of the new drachm at the coin show. Better photos are promised once I get this coin under some better lighting.


ATTICA, Athens
AR Drachm
449-413 B.C.

4.18 grams, 16 mm.
Obv: Helmeted Head of Athena facing right.
Rev: Owl standing right, head facing, olive sprig to left and AΘE to right all within incuse square.
Grade: aVF nicely centered coin w/ attractive horn silver surface color.
Other: Sear 2527 from Pegasi January 2014.





Thanks for letting me share & please post em if you got em.

 

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Very nice Collect. Here is my only example:

ATTICA ATHENS AR Tetradrachm
OBVERSE: Helmeted head of Athena right, in crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor & a spiral palmette on the bowl; eye in profile
REVERSE: AQE, owl standing right, head facing; olive sprig & crescent behind
Struck at Athens 350-300 BC
16.9g, 22mm
sg2537

 

Looking at the photos I'm suspecting the coin has recently been cleaned of horn silver. The write up says "attractive horn silver surface color" but I see very little residual horn silver and some damaged surfaces that seem in line with the cleaning theory. The coin is exceptionally well centered but lacking in sharpness again in line with being brushed in the cleaning process. In terms of strike and centering I'd say this is among the best I've seen. As it is, I'd call the coin very collectible.

Athenian small silver is hard to find nice in great condition. Perfect tetradrachms exist in buckets; drachms and obols less so. Denominations other than those three are not common and really rare in highest grade. Putting together a full set will not be easy and I really want to see your 1/8th obol when you get one! I have failed there. My personal drachm is a real dog but has been with me since 1987 so will be kept even if I get a better one. Mine is much thicker than yours and lacks a lot of peripheral detail.

drachm


hemidrachm


3/4 obol (tritartemorion) (a scarce one) Mine is ex NFA. I miss NFA sales. They sold a lot of very high end coins but sometimes their lower grade material that did not appeal to the big dogs went reasonably. This coin and the archaic obol at the bottom of this post both came from the same NFA mail sale in 1990. The same sale had a nice 1/4 obol that went over my head. I wish I had that coin.


Some of the missing denominations use different designs but the common obols and slightly less common hemiobols have the same layout and get confused by people who should know better as well as beginners without scales. Currently there is a very decent hemiobol being offered (by a dealer who should know better) as a full obol via an e-auction. I hope the winner will be someone who recognizes what it is and enjoys it for being half the size of what the seller described. There is little difference in value but it is easier to find whole obols, in my experience. Below are four obols and my only hemiobol shot together to show relative size. It is easy to see how they can be confused but but obols generally weigh 6-7g while hemis are, no surprise, half that. They were issued for many years so you can get archaic (top left), middle and late (bottom right) obols just like you can tetradrachms.

 

That's a pretty new owl, Collect89 (congrats)

 

very nice collect...wish i had one to post.

 

I hate to say it, but I don't really like that coin. It's perfectly genuine and the cleaning is well within acceptable bounds. I just can't stand the surfaces. The removal of the horn silver has given it a soft and muddled appearance. By the way - horn silvering is generally considered a negative. The "attractive horn silvering" on the ticket is a bit misleading.

Then again, I'm spoiled by looking at nice coins every day. As Doug said about, the coin is well centered and well struck (as are most I've seen), and it is a scarce and popular type.

 

C89 awesome coin i really like these...
Here's mine...
Athens 449-413..BC..
Ar Tetradrachm owl
24 x 25mm x 17.21 g.

 

This subject is precisely what ancientnoob & I were discussing at the show. This coin (and another from Side that we were inspecting) had horn silver color & obviously manipulated surfaces possibly from having horn silver removed. We couldn't explain how the horn silver was removed. The resulting coins lacked sharpness & have gray-color & have a mushy almost melted appearance. I'd like to learn what process may have been used to remove horn silver. Right now, I can't describe in my own mind's-eye what I'm looking at & want to know how this coin was processed. Any recommended reading or explanation would be appreciated.

Did the doctors use a wire brush, laser, torch or chemicals on this puppy?

 

Very nice John

 

YES! (seriously, I have no idea)

 

Here's my cute lil' imitative owl ...

=> hoooot-hooot!!

 

I would assume it was done mechanically, with a sharp dental pic, then smoothed with a Dremel.

 

All the old style coins in the drachm weight that I've seen on the market have soft features, whether by cleaning or wear. I'm sure Bill has come across much sharper examples at CNG, but if you're assembling a denomination set, I suppose you've got to ask yourself if you're willing to accept a decent coin at a decent price, or wait for a sharp example that will no doubt cost a few grand.

 

Thank you. I suspect you are correct that it was done mechanically. Also, portions of the surface may have subsequently been heated with a laser or torch in an inert atmosphere. That would kind-of sort-of explain how I see the coin in hand.

 

Yep, this coin was a few hundred and not a few thousand. I'm happy with the price & coin. It's now part of a small display of Atena/Owl coins and here is the photo I took today:

 

Here is my new Athena Owl Tetradrachm with all kinds of test cuts, punches, and banker's marks. It was low cost but it is dripping with character and history.

 

How do I post my coin

 

Yes indeed. The drachm is a much scarcer coin.

Since most day-to-day expenses in Athens and elsewhere were paid in subsidiary coinage, obols and bronze coinage, it seems to me that the incentive at the mint was clearly to produce tetradrachms over lower denominations.

The "owls" were an integral part of international trade. Athens, through her power in the 5th century BC over other states within the Athenian Arche was able to spread her owls throughout the Aegean, and further east, into Egypt, the Levant, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia and Arabia.

With the need to produce massive quantities of these tetradrachms to finance capital projects, build the Athenian fleet, finance Athens' costs during the Peloponnesian War including the ruinous expedition against Syracuse, smaller silver coins, notably didrachms (produced for a very limited period), drachms and even obols were clearly not a priority.

Here's a drachm that I purchased last year, from an Israeli dealer. This coin could be an imitation. Also the obverse has either a die shift, or, less likely an overstrike.

3.8 grams

 

Welcome to CT! This is an 8-year-old thread so it would be best to start a new thread for your coin. Once you post your text, click the button below labelled "upload a file", then select the file on your device you wish to upload.

 

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