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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1850510, member: 19463&quot;]Looking at the photos I&#039;m suspecting the coin has recently been cleaned of horn silver.&nbsp; The write up says &quot;attractive horn silver surface color&quot; but I see very little residual horn silver and some damaged surfaces that seem in line with the cleaning theory.&nbsp; The coin is exceptionally well centered but lacking in sharpness again in line with being brushed in the cleaning process.&nbsp; In terms of strike and centering I&#039;d say this is among the best I&#039;ve seen.&nbsp; As it is, I&#039;d call the coin very collectible.</p><p><br /></p><p>Athenian small silver is hard to find nice in great condition.&nbsp; Perfect tetradrachms exist in buckets; drachms and obols less so.&nbsp; Denominations other than those three are not common and really rare in highest grade.&nbsp;&nbsp; Putting together a full set will not be easy and I <u>really</u> want to see your 1/8th obol when you get one!&nbsp; I have failed there.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Mine is much thicker than yours and lacks a lot of peripheral detail.</p><p><br /></p><p>drachm</p><p>[ATTACH=full]309064[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>hemidrachm</p><p>[ATTACH=full]309065[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>3/4 obol (tritartemorion) (a scarce one)&nbsp; Mine is ex NFA.&nbsp; I miss NFA sales.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; I wish I had that coin.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]309066[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp;&nbsp; Currently there is a very decent hemiobol being offered (by a dealer who should know better) as a full obol via an e-auction.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; There is little difference in value but it is easier to find whole obols, in my experience.&nbsp;&nbsp; Below are four obols and my only hemiobol shot together to show relative size.&nbsp; It is easy to see how they can be confused but but obols generally weigh 6-7g while hemis are, no surprise, half that.&nbsp; They were issued for many years so you can get archaic (top left), middle and late (bottom right) obols just like you can tetradrachms. </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/ttahhgrp.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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