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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1034189, member: 19463&quot;]Regular participants on this site are apt to be suckered by postings when we try too hard to be nice and fair.&nbsp; The original post was a poor photo obviously showing Athena/owl of the general type used at Athens.&nbsp; From the photo it was obvious that it was not exactly regular but not so obvious whether it was one of the ancient civilizations that copied the owls (several in the middle east as well as Egypt).&nbsp; We tried too hard not to condemn the coin for lack of good evidence that it was good and hoped the poor photo was responsible for the strange look.&nbsp; It wasn&#039;t.&nbsp; We should have come down on the coin as a museum fake but we were unwilling to take a chance on being unduly harsh and wrongly bringing doubt on a $500+ coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>The fact remains that 95% of all Athena/owl coins in the hands of people who do not specialize in ancient coins are modern fakes.&nbsp; There are good fakes, deceptive fakes, ridiculous fakes that would not fool anyone and many stops in between.&nbsp; Perhaps we would be more likely to serve beginners properly if we were to take a hard stance on Athenian looking coins and require evidence that a coin is good before even suggesting that it is not a fake.&nbsp; Guilty until proven innocent is not a concept we like but in the case of this particular coin, it is usually the safe bet.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If anyone else has an owl on which they would like an opinion, lets at least require a good photo and full description (diameter and weight) before considering that it might even possibly be real.&nbsp; I feel embarrassed even wondering if this coin might be an Arabian copy issue when I don&#039;t really know enough about them to separate them from a tourist fake.&nbsp; Shame.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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