Pontos, Amisos drachm: Hera & Owl

I just bought my first ancient Owl! Had a thing for owls since I was a kid. Always wanted one on an ancient coin. Never had one. Until I pulled the trigger on this a few minutes ago.

It's not one of the famous Athenian owls, but I've always liked this type just about as much.

Here is the World Coins Schrag listing on MA-Shops.

I hadn't browsed MA-Shops in a while, but Schrag just sent me a 20-Euro voucher in email, so I went for a look, and this one flew off the page at me.

The voucher essentially offset the PayPal surcharge and shipping. My final cost after currency conversion was $173.41 USD.

I browsed VCoins for comparison and found only three of this earlier type with Hera's head facing left. One was nicer than this, but $470.00. The next was $125.00 but low grade and ugly. The last was only $80.00 and had detail as nice as or better than this coin, but a giant test cut that almost bisected the coin. So for the money, I think I did pretty well, despite my opinion that this coin is more of a VF than EF as described. I do think it looks fairly wholesome despite the modest grade.

What do you think? How'd I do, here?

Got any of these, or any info to share? Post away!

 

Those were perhaps the two things that most caught my eye, aside from the appeal of the design itself. Thanks.

This may become the "new oldest" coin in my Box of 20.

 

Do please elaborate.

 

That must be a new NGC slab. Not the same owl, of course, but it works.

"Bug eyed owls", indeed- yours and mine especially. It's almost frog- or duck-like on my coin. But I like it.

 

Thanks for the validation, y'all. That's a warm, fuzzy feeling.

This coin is (at least in terms of numismatic/monetary/market value) something of a "downgrade" to my "Eclectic Box of 20" collection. You see, due to some less favorable economic circumstances, I recently found it necessary to sell my Hadrian sestertius to a friend. While there is a small bit of seller's remorse attendant with that sale, the money received was much needed, and I also squared up some other old debts with that friend, and will still get to "visit" my Hadrian when I view his collection. And I did OK in the sale.

After taking care of my obligations, there was enough left over to purchase this coin as a sort of "consolation" for the sold Hadrian. And it was, as mentioned, a type I've always liked, it added a second ancient Greek coin to my small collection, and is now the oldest coin in that collection. So all's good, I guess. I am content, my friend is happy with the Hadrian at the price he paid, and I was OK with that deal also. Win-win. I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

@chrsmat71 - that's one of my all-time favorite Classic Rock album covers.

Not a bad album, either. This track just came up in my random iPod shuffle a little while ago:

 

Thanks. This will be the second ancient Greek in my "Eclectic Box of 20".

Here is the other.

Ancient Greece (Kingdom of Macedon), silver "Mercenaries" drachm of King Perseus, ca. 175-170 BC






I actually just bought a much less expensive one, not for the Box of 20, but for the Numismatic Gladiator XI cheap coin competition on Collectors Universe. (For the moment, I'll leave everyone to guess which of the two coins I purchased there.)

And I'll be buying another Seleucid AE soon, which is not quite "Box of 20" caliber, but nice.