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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2204606, member: 19463&quot;]What to look for:</p><p>Owls are very pure silver and therefore soft.&nbsp; Many have surface problems, scratches or smoothing.&nbsp; I believe the one Mat suggested has a bit of smoothing in the fields which is the only reason a coin that nice otherwise would be that cheap.&nbsp; People pay extra for centering.&nbsp; Many of us want a nose on Athena that is on flan.&nbsp; There is a premium on coins with a lot of the helmet crest showing.&nbsp; Test cuts, however small lower the price a lot.&nbsp; Earlier coins are much more expensive than later.&nbsp; The good news is that they are as common as dirt so you can find one that fits our desires.&nbsp; They are popular enough that they are never cheap.&nbsp; Below are my two best Classical style tetradrachms.&nbsp; The wear and test cuts reduce the first from several thousand (really nice centering) to a few hundred:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]429940[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Similarly you will not get one with as much crest and nose as the one below unless it, like mine, has weak strike (owl chest) and messed up metal.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]429941[/ATTACH] </p><p>If you want good detail and perfect metal with no wear, $1k is no longer enough.&nbsp; The trick is to avoid coins that people sell with the faults mentioned but for prices as if everything were perfect.&nbsp; There are many, many seriously overpriced owls out there.&nbsp; Buy where you wish but a few weeks of watching the results from the CNG sales iamtiberius mentioned will prove educational.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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