My First Silver Owl

Finally, I've got this popular and valuable(to me) silver Tet of Athena and the famous owl on reverse.The economic civilization started with these sorts of coins. I wonder in which century the coin below had been struck. It weighs 17.1 g. and seems to have been harshly cleaned. Dimension as oval shape, nearly 18-22 mm. only. Please post your comments.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Judging from the obverse it looks like a Fouree. I think I can see the bronze core exposed on Athena's chin. Though it could just be a spot of encrustation!

 

I like it @7Calbrey...although I can't really comment on whether it's a fourree or not----maybe, although the weight seems to suggest otherwise and surprisingly quite a few are listed on acsearch---both drachms and Tets.

https://www.acsearch.info/search.ht...s=1&currency=usd&thesaurus=1&order=0&company=

I can't date it myself except to note those listed above (fourrees) primarily are from the fifth century (circa 400 BC) but some date as early as the 3rd century BC.

 

Ancient bankers made ABSOLUTELY sure that a couple of mine were not fourees...

I was told it was a No-No to whack Athena, but folks must have been pretty upset with her...

 

Thank you for your sincere and objective comments. In case this coin is a Fourree and genuine. Could you please guess the approximate value?

 

Yes, looks like a fourree , if genuine and issued by Athens as an official emergency issue its a valuable coin.
sadly your pictures are small and not very sharp,
one of my owls was once seriously tested and did pass , although it suffered some minor damage

 

I'm not very familiar with these issues (fourrees) as they distinguish between 'contemporary imitations' and 'emergency issues'---the latter apparently more valuable and seemingly valued at about $150+ for types within your grade....as the link to acsearch suggests.

Amazing how I can daily discover previously unknown and interesting aspects of ancient coins.....

 

I don't think we can say much of anything based on those horrible scans! Is it a fourree? I sure can't tell based on those images. The weight doesn't suggest fourree.

Charles, now would be a good time to employ your new camera.

 

What a hoot

 

The coin is most definitely not an official fourree of the Emergency period. The style is wrong. Fourree fakes by counterfeiters exist for all periods of owls and ignorant or unscrupulous sellers try to make people thing their fourrees might be from the Emergency. They almost never are. I do not see anything about this coin suggesting it is a fourree but plenty to suggest it has been abused terribly in cleaning. If you really, really want to know if a coin is fourree there is a very simple test:
Is fourree:


Ain't:

 

Ahaha, Charles => I laughed when TIF stung you with her camera comment (she's cheeky at times, eh?)

I hope your coin ends-up being a winner ......... cheers

 

You're perfectly right. I've been very busy today. I shall post a close shot tomorrow because now I'm going to bed. Good night coin-friends.

 

many times Athenian tetradrachms are middle eastern imitatives,
especially ones that have a whack on Athena, in the middle east she was nobody special.
some imitatives are hard to tell the difference and were made quite well, but the emergency issues somebody mentioned, a lot of times are mid east and asia minor made fourees created far away from Athens.

 

Thanks again and sorry for delaying. Here are a couple of digital photos that could help detect either way.

 

Nice photo.

 

I see nothing to make me suspect anything other than a bit badly abused, genuine coin. There are many hundreds of thousands of these owl tets and many of them are worse than this one. Enjoy it.

 

Much better picture, it looks like the chin spot was just some crud.
Good catch!

 

Sweet photos, 7Charles ... great progress!!

Ummm, here is my only Attic owl example ...

I have included many horrible photos of my sweet coin

The Seller's Photos:




My first attempts at showing the "girth" of this sweet coin:




My final attempts at trying to capture the great looks of this imitative example (Egypt or Syria, according to David Sear):




Ummm Charles => perhaps you could teach me how to use my camera, eh?

... you seem to be making far better progress than me!!

Again, congrats on snapping-off a couple of great coin-photos

Cheers

 

Congrats 7Calbrey, looks much better with the new pics.
Looks like a real thick chunky Owl. (and no fourree)
Here's mine:

 

Great coin and pics! I especially like the reverse because it has no chop mark like mine. I keep this coin a box I use for my COB talks. I keep this one and a Shekel of Tyre together, so pictured below are the two.