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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2283840, member: 19463&quot;]There is no such thing as a best coin in that bracket.&nbsp; What you will get is the sort of thing I collect and that make up so much of my collection not the sort of thing that the majority of collectors here and in general want in their collections.&nbsp; There are several choices:</p><p><br /></p><p>If the coin must be a Classical tetradrachm, it will be test cut and probably poorly cleaned.&nbsp; These coins are very high grade silver and, therefore very soft so they are harder to find with good surfaces and unworn.&nbsp; They were struck on flans a bit smaller than appropriate for the dies so it is common to be missing part of the design.&nbsp; The more design you are willing to give up, the less wear you may get for the money.&nbsp; The majority were cut through the face of the owl.&nbsp; You will pay more for one with a test cut that is located nicely somewhere else. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]456932[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>If you can live with the degraded style of the century or two after Athens was the big name in Greece, you can get a coin with a lest obtrusive cut or even no cut but that will be pushing your $300 limit seriously.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]456933[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>If size does not matter, you might consider a smaller denomination like the drachm which is 1/4 the weight of the popular tetradrachm.&nbsp; Drachms are much more scarce than tetradrachms but sufficiently less popular you could get a worn, off center one for only $95 in 1987 when I bought this one.&nbsp; See, no test cut.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]456934[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Even more likely to produce a good looking coin would be an obol or 1/6 drachm but now we are down to about 0.6g and most people don&#039;t like them that small.&nbsp; There are smaller ones but the scarce fractional obols are more expensive than whole obols.&nbsp; I like the style on this one.&nbsp;&nbsp; It is an early style with three separate tail feathers on the owl.&nbsp; The equivalent tetradrachm would be well over $2000 and much easier to find since there are hundreds of tetradrachms available for every coin of other denominations.&nbsp; Remember what I said about soft silver? This coin does not have much wear but it is quite beat up.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]456948[/ATTACH] </p><p>TIF mentioned New Style.&nbsp; I&#039;m not sure you will do a lot better on them since decent ones are closer to Classical price than they used to be.&nbsp; You might be able to get a reasonable one for $300 but it might have a bit more wear than the example below.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]456943[/ATTACH] </p><p>My most recent purchase was a New Style tetradrachm with a couple problems that made it perfect for my collection but not for yours, I suspect.&nbsp; It was nowhere near $300 I assure you.&nbsp; When you see those test cut coins, this is what they were looking for.&nbsp; The coin is an ancient counterfeit made with a silver layer over a copper core.&nbsp; We call them fourree which is French for stuffed.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]456946[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the point.&nbsp; As a collector, each must make certain choices. I have shown 5 1/2 coins here which in total cost me less than one really nice tetradrachm of the same types.&nbsp; I could have bought these or I could have bought one coin costing the same (and much easier to find since every dealer has one in stock, it seems). I chose.&nbsp;&nbsp; For most collectors wanting an owl, the best thing to do would be to put the money aside and add to the fund until it would cover&nbsp; what most people would call a decent coin.&nbsp; You choose.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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