Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1937705, member: 19463&quot;]While it is a wonderful observation, the Pi on helmet matter really only separates various later styles.&nbsp; If you want an overview of the owls, you need a series of the earlier ones.&nbsp; 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.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://athenianowlcoins.reidgold.com/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://athenianowlcoins.reidgold.com/" rel="nofollow">http://athenianowlcoins.reidgold.com/</a></p><p>The above has a lot but still glosses over the earlier periods.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>A set to my satisfaction would be:</p><p>An early, Archaic coin.&nbsp; These are somewhat crude and vary a lot in style. I don&#039;t have one of these but really would like one (even a crude junker).&nbsp; The one below is exceptional.&nbsp; </p><p><a href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=79688" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=79688" rel="nofollow">http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=79688</a></p><p><br /></p><p>A Transitional coin with fine style.&nbsp; 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.</p><p><a href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=61130" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=61130" rel="nofollow">http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=61130</a></p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; You will see these earlier coins referred to by their &#039;Starr Group&#039; number after Chester Starr whose book stopped before the coins I could afford started.&nbsp; Better coins in these series now tend to be $10k+.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Next is the most common Classical style which is like the last except the tail of the owl was simplified into a single prong.&nbsp; These vary a lot in quality with some being as well executed as the earlier Classical coins and some being a bit amateurish.&nbsp; The eye of Athena is still almond shaped.&nbsp; Again my link shows a better than average coin.</p><p><a href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=188823" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=188823" rel="nofollow">http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=188823</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately at this time there were mints other than Athens turning out these coins.&nbsp; They are the 5th century equivalent of modern silver bullion issues.&nbsp; The most crude of the Classical and later coins may be from Egypt or the Middle East.&nbsp; Students differ on just where to draw lines here.&nbsp; Is a coin a bad day at Athens or a good day from somewhere else?&nbsp; IMO the market does not discount heavily enough for the poor coins in this category. These are common.&nbsp; Really nice ones are not but junkers sell for way too much. </p><p><br /></p><p>After the 404BC defeat by Sparta, the styles changed gradually.&nbsp; The eye went from fully almond shaped looking out from the coin to a more realistic profile view.&nbsp; A collection also might want one of the intermediate types and one fully profile but certainly well made coin like the one below.&nbsp; I&#039;m no expert in dating this progression.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=258350" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=258350" rel="nofollow">http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=258350</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Later, the owls (both bird and coin) became chunky and oddly shaped.&nbsp; By 300BC, the coins of Athens were just plain crude IMO.&nbsp; Some are cute in their odd shapes but finding coins with all the design on the flan will take work. </p><p><a href="http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1240627" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1240627" rel="nofollow">http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1240627</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, someone in Athens said &#039;enough&#039; and the coins were changed to what we call New Style.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Again there are many different styles in &#039;New Style&#039; but for my purposes any one will do. </p><p><a href="http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1537381" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1537381" rel="nofollow">http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1537381</a></p><p><br /></p><p>All this assumes you want tetradrachms.&nbsp; It is also possible to find the different periods in the smaller silver denominations.&nbsp; For those in the price range I frequent, this is a necessity.&nbsp; Coins of Athens are popular and common.&nbsp;&nbsp; Currently, VCoins dealers have examples for immediate sale of every variation I mentioned so finding representatives is just a matter of paying the price.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in