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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;robinjojo, post: 13975666, member: 110226&quot;]The wear is light and even.&nbsp; I tend to collect &quot;mid grade&quot; coins.&nbsp; With Athenian owls I leave the super high grade, full or nearly full crest coins to those obsessed with these things and have the monetary means to buy them.&nbsp; The way I look at these coins, as well as other ancient coins, is that they were produced for trade and everyday use.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>As such they encounter wear, effects of burial, test cuts, countermarks (which I find very interesting) and of course counterfeiting.&nbsp; The contemporary fakes (not to be confused with eastern imitations) are pretty easy to detect, since they are silver plated over cooper cores.&nbsp; Those coins almost always have areas where the core shows through, plus their weights tend to be very low.</p><p><br /></p><p>Imitation owls are a subspecialty of collecting.&nbsp; The Athenian owl was extremely popular in the East, and numerous imitations were made, especially after the fall of Athens in 404 BC, which caused a disruption in the flow of coinage to the Levant, Arabia and beyond.</p><p><br /></p><p>Getting back to your coin, as you probably have seen in your searches, there are lots of owls out there.&nbsp; Immense hoards have come to the market.&nbsp; Still demand is strong for this type due to its history and design.&nbsp; Slabbed owls usually have a premium, but not always.&nbsp; I think if you paid between $400 and $500 for this coin, since it is slabbed, you got a pretty good buy.&nbsp; A raw owl, not in a slab in VF would sell for around $400 or so, depending on condition.&nbsp; At auction, a classical owl, raw, in VF would hammer at around $350, plus buyer&#039;s fee, which is now up to 22.5% or more.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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