Attica Athens Tetradrachm

Attica Athens Tetradrachms have always been cool to me. I do own one that I bought for $355 last year but I still don't know much about them. When I bought it all I went off of was that I thought it looked really cool. I might be interested in buying more but I want to know more about them before I do so like how to date them or where exactly they come from. Information like that. If anyone could help me out that would be amazing! Thanks!

 

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Read this...it talks about dating based on the floral style on the attic helmet Athena wears.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Pi-Style

 

Oh wow that actually helps a lot! Thanks for helping me get started!

 

While it is a wonderful observation, the Pi on helmet matter really only separates various later styles. If you want an overview of the owls, you need a series of the earlier ones. Of course, each of them can be broken down into groups as well depending on whether you are looking for a small set of four or five coins or an exhaustive group.

http://athenianowlcoins.reidgold.com/
The above has a lot but still glosses over the earlier periods.

A set to my satisfaction would be:
An early, Archaic coin. These are somewhat crude and vary a lot in style. I don't have one of these but really would like one (even a crude junker). The one below is exceptional.
http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=79688

A Transitional coin with fine style. The eye of Athena will be strongly almond shaped and the tail of the owl will be shown to have three distinctly separate tail feathers.
http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=61130

There are books on these coins up to this point that many of us bought not realizing we would never afford a coin shown in the book. You will see these earlier coins referred to by their 'Starr Group' number after Chester Starr whose book stopped before the coins I could afford started. Better coins in these series now tend to be $10k+.

Next is the most common Classical style which is like the last except the tail of the owl was simplified into a single prong. These vary a lot in quality with some being as well executed as the earlier Classical coins and some being a bit amateurish. The eye of Athena is still almond shaped. Again my link shows a better than average coin.
http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=188823

Unfortunately at this time there were mints other than Athens turning out these coins. They are the 5th century equivalent of modern silver bullion issues. The most crude of the Classical and later coins may be from Egypt or the Middle East. Students differ on just where to draw lines here. Is a coin a bad day at Athens or a good day from somewhere else? IMO the market does not discount heavily enough for the poor coins in this category. These are common. Really nice ones are not but junkers sell for way too much.

After the 404BC defeat by Sparta, the styles changed gradually. The eye went from fully almond shaped looking out from the coin to a more realistic profile view. A collection also might want one of the intermediate types and one fully profile but certainly well made coin like the one below. I'm no expert in dating this progression. http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=258350

Later, the owls (both bird and coin) became chunky and oddly shaped. By 300BC, the coins of Athens were just plain crude IMO. Some are cute in their odd shapes but finding coins with all the design on the flan will take work.
http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1240627

Finally, someone in Athens said 'enough' and the coins were changed to what we call New Style. Trying to make the coins bring back memories of the good old days but applying careless workmanship for over a century had made the coins crude compared to the rest of Greece. Again there are many different styles in 'New Style' but for my purposes any one will do.
http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1537381

All this assumes you want tetradrachms. It is also possible to find the different periods in the smaller silver denominations. For those in the price range I frequent, this is a necessity. Coins of Athens are popular and common. Currently, VCoins dealers have examples for immediate sale of every variation I mentioned so finding representatives is just a matter of paying the price.

 

Wow this is unbelievable! Thank You! That top link helps a lot! Thank you for spending your time to write me this! I really appreciate it!

 

So in short there are different types and different styles for each type?

 

Yes...most (and I use the term most loosely) who own an example of an Owl tet have the common classical tet with the archaic almond shaped eye presented in Doug's fourth URL link. I assume ur tet is the same, silverdrachm...or do u have a transitional style?

 

I actually think i have an intermediate style. The eye on mine isnt almond shaped.

 

Post a pic...I'm always interested in seeing other collectors' tets. This is mine...

 

I would if I knew how. Can you help me? I have a iphone 5s and a mac book pro if that helps you

 

I'm using my ipad so it should be similar as long as ur on the coin talk.com website and not a third party app. Underneath the post box should be three buttons...post reply, upload file, and more options. Click upload file and the rest is pretty much self explanatory from there

 

I think I did it.

 

Yup it worked....Athena's face is super swollen like she got stung by a bunch of bees....either that or got carried away with the Botox

 

What do you think of it?

 

Its an intermediate right? I paid about $355 for it a year ago. may have overpaid a little maybe not but I like it. Just to be clear there is The Archaic, the 3 Classical, the Intermediate, and the new style so 6 different ones total? So if I were to get all 6 I would have them all?

 

I think you did well for the price. I bought mine a year and a half ago for $400, but it's not as nice.

BTW, next time take the coin out of the holder. The reflection is obscuring your coin somewhat. Do you know the size and weight?

 

I dont know the size but it is 17.9g

 

Good weight. Mine is 16.9g and 22mm

 

Do you guys think it is a good idea to store them in flips? Its the best way i could think of.

 

I store my coins in Mylar flips as well, even my owl tet