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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;robinjojo, post: 7581290, member: 110226&quot;]Yes, the Owl on the reverse is very nicely detailed and of somewhat higher relief when compared to other mass production tetradrachms.&nbsp; The centering is also very nice.&nbsp; The color is excellent, enhancing the overall appearance of the coin.&nbsp; Quite often these coins are over cleaned to point where they are just too shiny for my tastes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now I noticed that the NGC description mentions that your coin might be an Eastern imitation, which might be true.&nbsp; If it is, it must be an early one, perhaps contemporaneous with the last decade or so of classical Owl production in Athens in the late 5th century.</p><p><br /></p><p>One key indicator that it might be an imitation is the eye of Athena.&nbsp; As production proceeded with these coins, moving from the transitional Owls into the early mass production Owls and finally the later mass production Owls, Athena&#039;s eye, in the front begins to open up as it evolves into what will be the more naturalistic profile eye of the intermediate Owls of the 4th-3rd centuries.&nbsp; Since your coin has Athena with a nearly closed front of the eye, and given the somewhat different owl, I think those indicators prompted NGC to include the possibility of an Eastern connection for your coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>For comparison, here is a mass production Owl.&nbsp;&nbsp; As you can see the eye is a bit more open in front, and the owl on the reverse is proportioned differently.&nbsp; The proportions of the lettering for the ethnic on the reverse and the floral design on the helmet are also different.</p><p><br /></p><p>17.23 grams</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1306523[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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