Superb Owl Sunday

Okay ...



Yea, I know, conspicuous consumption.

 

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It's the Hummer of coins!

 

You ancient collectors are always so welcoming! I appreciate that attitude a lot, actually.

 

Instead of an owl, how about a stadium? The Circus Maximus!



ANTONINVS PIVS AVG
Laureate head of Caracalla right

LAETITIA TEMPORVM
The spina of the Circus Maximus decorated as a ship facing l., with the turning posts at its prow and stern, a sail mounted on the central obelisk, and the spina's other monuments visible in between; above the ship, four quadrigas racing l.; below, seven animals: an ostrich at l. and bear at r.; between them a lion and a lioness chasing a wild ass and a panther attacking a bison.

Rome 206 AD

3.34g

Ex-Londinium coins, Ex Professor K.D. White with original envelope.

Sear 6813, RIC 157, BMCRE 257, CSS 793

Very rare! Only 2 examples in the Reka Devnia hoard

Better in hand

Notes by Curtis Clay:

This famous type commemorates the chariot races and animal hunt that took place on the seventh and final day of Severus' Saecular Games in 204 AD, as described in the inscriptional acts of those games which were found in Rome in the 1870s and 1930s. According to the acts, after three days of sacrifices and three days of honorary stage shows, Severus and Caracalla held circus games on the seventh day, consisting of chariot races and then a hunt of 700 beasts, 100 each of "lions, lionesses, panthers, bears, bisons, wild asses, ostriches". Dio Cassius describes the same hunt, adding the detail that the cage from which the animals were discharged was formed like a boat: "The entire receptacle in the theater had been fashioned in the shape of a boat and was capable of receiving or discharging four hundred beasts at once; and then, as it suddenly fell apart, there came rushing forth bears, lionesses, panthers, lions, ostriches, wild asses, bisons, so that 700 beasts in all, both wild and domesticated, at one and the same time were seen running about and were slaughtered. For to correspond with the duration of the festival, which lasted seven days, the number of the animals was also seven times one hundred." In Dio's text this passage follows directly on his account of Severus' Decennalian Games in 202 AD, causing scholars to accuse Dio of misdating the hunt or to postulate that similar hunts of 700 animals were held both in 202 and in 204. But the true explanation, in my opinion, is that Dio's Byzantine epitimator Xiphilinus, on whom we are dependent for this section of Dio's text, has simply jumped without warning or transition from Dio's description of the Decennalian Games of 202 to his description of the circus spectacle concluding the Saecular Games of 204. This hypothesis easily explains why Dio's text as we have it makes no mention of the Saecular Games themselves or of any event of 203: Xiphilinus omitted this whole section of Dio's history! The seven kinds of animals named by both Dio and the inscriptional acts are also depicted in the coin type: on good specimens, especially the aureus BM pl. 34.4, the ostrich and the bear are clear, the lion has a mane, the ass has long ears, the bison has horns and a hump. Two large felines remain, of which we may suppose that the one accompanying the lion is the lioness and the one attacking the bison is the panther. The animals are named somewhat differently in Cohen, BMC, and other numismatic works: though numismatists have long cited Dio's text to explain the coin type, no one previously seems to have posed the question whether the seven animals in the lower part of the type might not be the same seven that Dio and now the inscriptional acts too name! These circus games with the ship and 700 animals were held in 204 AD, but the coin type commemorating them did not appear until two years later: on aurei of Septimius the type is die linked to a dated type of 206 AD, and for Caracalla the type passes from a draped and cuirassed obverse type on the aureus to the "head only" type on his denarii, a transition that took place in 206 AD according to his dated coins.

 

Fantastic owls everyone!
The photo @Kaleun96 shared is really something!

My favorite owl:
Athens, Attica, ca 454-404 BC
20 x 25 mm, 16.891 g
Kroll 8; SNG Copenhagen 39; Dewing 1591 - 1598; Sear 2526, Starr Pl. 22 No. 3, Svoronos Pl. 11 No. 7.; Flament Group II;

 

Aeolis Neonteichos small bronze

 

Here's a tetras from Kamarina in Sicily, 420-405 BC, with Athena on the obverse.

 

OWLS...

Hard to Get:


Teate Apulia 225-220 BCE AE Quincunx 12.5g 26.5mm Athena R Corinthn helmet - TIATI owl K 5 pellets - BMC HN Italy 702a SNG Cop 689 var RARE



Athens Attica 454-404 BCE ARr hemidrachm 16mm 2.08g Athena frontal eye - facing Owl wings closed olive branches COP 70 SG 2528



Athens 340-317 BCE BC AE 12 Athena attic helmet R- Double bodied Owl with head facing E olive sprigs kalathos RARE BMC 224



Tyre 1-16 shekel 10mm 0.47g hippocamp l over waves - owl with crook flail Sear Greek 5916.BMC Tyre 43 5th-4th BCE



Sicily Kalakte AE unit 2nd C BCE Head Athena in Helmet - Owl rev RARE

 

Owls:

Easier Ones:


Calabria Tarentum AR Drachm 18mm 3.1g 3rd C BCE Athena Corinthian Scylla OWL olive TAP ZOP HN Italy 975 Vlasto 1052



Sicily Kamarina AE 15mm 3.4g 420-405 BCE Athena Owl Lizard 3 dots Sear Gk 1063



SICILY Kamarina Æ Onkia 13mm 1.5g 420-405 BCE Gorgon tongue - KAMA owl r lizard in claw pellet in ex SNG Münch 411
EX: One of @John Anthony 's past auctions...

 

OWLS:

Everybody's Got These...

But, I enjoy my bankers marks...means they have been AROUND!

(She is aiming for your windshield...)

Athens Owl AR Tet 17.4g 20.4mm x 7.5mm Late Classical 393-300 BC, Sear 2537, SNG Cop. 63 edge-crud

(OOPS! Lost her head...)

Athens Owl AR Tet 17.2g 22mm x 6.7mm thick Late Classical 393-300 BC, Sear 2537, SNG Cop. 63

(This one is sitting on her Egg)

Athens Owl AR Tet 17.3g 22.9mm x 6.8mm thick Late Classical 393-300 BC, Sear 2537, SNG Cop. 63 crud

(BAMM! Right between the eyes...)

Athens Owl Tet 16.8g 22x6-5mm Late Classical 393-300 BC, Sear 2537, SNG Cop. 63

 

An after-Super Bowl-party owl...
Arabia Felix. Sabaean Kingdom, circa 1st century BC - 1st century AD. AR nṣf – Unit (26mm, 5.31g, 6h). Obv: Imitating Athens ‘New Style’ coinage, but with Roman-style bust. Roman style laureate head right within wreath. Rev: Owl standing right, head facing, on amphora; monogram and N (in South Arabian [mark of value]) to left, monogram and curved symbol of Almaqah to right. Ref: Munro-Hay 1.13i; Huth 283–6; SNG ANS 1475. Very Fine, toned, rotated double strike on obverse. Ex CNG eAuction 450 (21 Aug 2019), Lot 244.

 

17.15 grams




16.60 grams

 

Absolutely spectacular!

 

Pretty sure that's an eastern imitation owl. Nice coin!

 

Go for it!

 

Here are my 2 contributions:

 

I gave in last year and purchased an Owl as well. It's not as "superb" as others shown here... Athena's nose is off the flan, and Athena's crest and the owl's tail feathers are as well. Still, it's in really great shape and was the best quality coin that met my budget. I think it's still "superb"!

 

Oh, goody. I don't have a lot of ancient coins but this is one where I can play.

 

Wow, quite the spectacular owl.