Attica Athens Tetradrachm

Okay. I got a question for you. 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?

 

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As far as "types" go, it's a bit more complicated than that, but if u can obtain six different style owls, you are pretty well covered in the generalized differences of the owl tet variants.

 

Like Doug stated earlier, it's gonna take ALOT of money, well beyond $10,000 (considering most archaic tets are around 10,000 by themselves). So kudos to u if u can afford it.

 

Okay. How much more complicated?

 

I wish! At the moment I cant afford that. Maybe someday

 

The first link I posted about transitional owls (like the one you have), lists more types on top of the 6 u wish to collect. Btw, it looks like u have pi-style 3 or 4, though the glare from ur plastic flip in the pic is really obstructive and does not do the coin justice.

 

Here are two pictures out of the flip. I think it might actually be a pi 2 because the top most tendril is shorter than the bottom one which matches the pi 2.

 

I wanted an archaic owl when they were $1000 but I didn't have $1000 so I didn't get one. The series is so popular that people with no interest in coins and more money than sense buy them. Between the number of fakes and the range of prices available, I do not suggest buying an owl from anyone not 100% trusted and known to know the series. Buying them from amateur dealers is not a good idea.

These are my four non-fourree tets (in order???). Each was bought for a reason except the first which was bought a long, long time ago.

 

It's possible but impossible to say for sure since top of the pi design is off the flan. I still believe it more closely resembles pi 3 or 4 mainly because of the owl. Pi 2 owls more closely resemble the classical owl and pi 3 and 4 owls are more crude in artistic design

 

Then once you've collected all of the Athenian Owls, you can start trying to collect the imitative types ... here is my cool example:

Eastern Mediterranean area (Egypt or Syria)
Athens Imitative, Silver tetradrachm
after circa 413 BC
Diameter: 26.3 x 22.2 mm
Weight: 15.2 grams
Obverse: head of Athena right, wearing crested helmet ornamented with three olive leaves along the front edge, palmette on bowl, and spiral behind ear, her hair drawn across forehead in parallel curves
Reverse: ΑΘΕ (the first letter represented as a triangle) before owl standing right, head facing, in erect posture, olive sprig and lunar crescent in upper field to left, all within incuse square
Reference: cf. Kraay (Archaic and Classical Greek Coins) pp. 73-4 and pl. 12, 204
Other: two deep test cuts on owl's head and wing

 

Oh you're right. I wasn't even looking at the owl. I'm thinking a pi 3 because they are a little thinker and less curly on the ends. Too bad we cant see the full thing.

 

Here is a CT thread describing Athenian owl coinage:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/itsy-bitsy-teeny-weenie-athens-owl-it’s-a-hemiobol.246682/
Post #12 depicts my small owl type set.

 

Wow thats really nice. Do you mind me asking the prices you paid for them?

 

Does anyone know besides vcoins and ebay is there any other good websites to buy them?

 

auctions are the way to go ... layin' low in the reeds, waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting, overlooked prey .... priceless!!

 

Or, as usually seems to be my case, getting tired of laying low and ending up bidding to much for a coin. Prey, predator, priceless, overpriced.

 

ahaha ... have you been following my auction performances?!!

... worst hunter "ever"

Yah, I've been known to waste all of my arrows on the very first sign of a meal ... followed by a frantic, frenzied blitzkrieg apparoach where I end-up stoning my prey with a showering of cash!!

Ummm, but seriously, most of my "soundest" purchases have been reed-type auction grabs (the other good purchases have usually been group-buys where the seller has lowered his prices to accomodate my bulk buy)

 

by the way => it is "too" much, not to much (c'mon man ... at least try to sound smart, my awesome coin mentor)

 

You might buy the books. Starr "Athenian Coinage" is cheap with many coins illustrated on 26 page plates ($25 in reprint on Amazon). Seltman "Athens: Its history and its coinage" is not cheap. Both primarily cover pre-Persian invasion coinage.

I know it is true, but it still surprises me that so many collectors think they might spend hundreds of dollars on each of several coins and expect the knowledge they need to do it well would be free on the web. Yes, lots of beginner's knowledge is free on the web, but I emphasize the word "beginner's." Good books go many times as deeply into most areas of ancient coinage as web sites and forum answers (not all areas, if some expert has been kind enough to make a thorough site). If any collector is past the dabbling "Oh! This is old!" stage, they should pay for some relevant books or admit they don't know much about what they are buying.

http://esty.ancients.info/numis/learnmore.html
has some book recommendations.

 

Mine cost 225 in 2010ish
If I could find a way to clean the unkn substance off of her face, I feel it would increase the value, substantially.
Too bad my bankers nearly cut it in half. They really wanted to test this one.