Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="elgeedublu, post: 3713667, member: 72086"]I would simply add that historically there have been two different uses or opinions of the term "transitional."  When I first started collecting owls 20 years ago, dealer use of "transitional" was typically applied to nearly ALL Starr owls, save for perhaps the earliest two Groups.  The term was generally applied as Starr owls being "transitional" between "archaic" and "standard" owl types.  But I think that with the large hoard that was marketed about 10 years ago, and now with the recent huge find currently on the market, dealers have become a bit more knowledgeable and now attempt to attribute Starr owls by their proper Groups, and now refer to "tranisitional" owls as EARLY "standard" owls, i.e. those with some Starr Group V characteristics (similar Athena, "fat" owl), but with a single-prong tail.  With all the new specimens, and new dies, now available, this particular sub-group with a great variety of stylistic variations is turning into a fascinating area of study.  As a side note, there is a peculiar style of owl in which the owl's claws are slanted to the right that is being marketed as "the earliest transitional" (standard) owls that I think time will prove to be actually later in the run or perhaps of non-Athenian origin.  At any rate, the recent hoards have proven to be massively interesting from a die-study perspective.[/QUOTE]