Why are there so many Athenian tetradrachms?

Half a century ago the Western dealers from London or the USA would have cooperated with scholars. For example when the "1973 Iraq (or Near Babylon) Hoard" hit the market in London, the auction house immediately told numismatists. The hoard could be analyzed and published by Otto Mørkholm, Martin Price, Peter Van Alfen. A large part of it could be bought for public collections like ANS or British Museum, and these coins can now be studied by scholars.
Now, look what happens. An enormous hoard of thousands of coins is being dispersed on the market, nobody knows where it was found, how many coins there are, which ones precisely... Of course this is because now laws exist that protect the countries' archaeological heritage. If the find-place was known, the local government would logically claim property of the coins.
So the "professional numismatists" (= dealers, auctioneers) face a dilemma: science or profit. Well, the choice is obvious, isn't it? This is the new obscurantism. In the Middle Ages they burnt books (sometimes authors too) and defaced works of art in the name of religions. Today the universal religion on which everybody, Christian, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists are in total agreement, is profit.
Please don't ban me ! But I could not resist.

 

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My owl.

 

As the English "National Treasure" law clearly illustrates, both cultural heritage and profits can coexist. It's just a question of governments creating the right incentives. It's a shame that most countries don't follow the U.K.'s example.

 

Hoards of owls continue to be discovered. Specific information about them, is next to nonexistent.

This photo is part a group of classical owls that came out of Syria a few years ago. They are all in quite nice condition, which leads me to think they might have been a group owned by a collector or even museum. In conflict regions the origins of objects and coins are lost.

This hoard has since been dispersed.



Even in the best of times, where there is no conflict, the discovery and documentation of coin hoards and antiquities is problematic. War adds to this scenario destruction of archeological sites as well as the destruction of cities and the slaughter of people. War is very good at doing this, and it is by no means a recent phenomena. Civilizations have been engaged in this activity for thousands of years. The main difference now is that war is far more efficient and complete in accomplishing these tasks with the ever evolving technologies at hand.

 

The realism of Athena's face on the center coin of the bottom row is really striking.

 

Here are a couple of recent arrivals.

This is a pharaonic owl with three test cuts. What makes this coin interesting is the pentagram counterstamp on the obverse. Some staters (double shekels) from Babylon, circa 328-311 BC, also have pentagrams on the reverse. Could this coin have circulated in Babylon during this time?

17.00 grams





And, here is a classical owl, 440-404 BC, from Roma E-Sale 88, lot 138.

17.23 grams

 

I disagree. I would suspect that a much higher number of Athenian tetradrachms by percentage survived in good condition to be found today because the majority of those coins made never entered circulation but were placed in pots in the same way many silver dollars were bagged and placed in bank vaults a century ago. Certainly some owls were spent but most were part of a larger unit. Field finds of individual coins may exist but those 'mint bags' were protected in a way that allowed them to be found by the thousand. Smaller fractions were released into circulation and spent until lost (or swallowed?) so a mint state coin is proportionally less likely. I knew a collector years ago who had a worn dekadrachm. The best explanation was that the coin was a pocket piece carried by a gentleman of means sometime in the last 300 years (or whenever they started having pockets in clothing). More dekadrachms are EF; a VG would be exceptional.

 

Yes, that probably is the case for these coins. They are all pretty nice grades and have been cleaned. One can only speculate where they were found in Syria, assuming it was Syria, and under what circumstances.

A seller, who bought some of these owls has been selling them to a Chinese or Japanese collector or collectors for around $800 per coin which I guess is a good price in today's market.

 

Copper from Athens was mentioned, but not illustrated. Here is one:



19-17 mm. 7.03 grams.
Head of Athena in crested Corinthian helmet, right.
Zeus standing right, brandishing thunderbolt,
A
Θ E for Athens.
Sear Greek 2567. SNG Copenhagen Attica, Athens 307 "c. 87-86 BC"
BMC Attica XIV.5 "c. 220-83 BC"
McClean II plate 210.11 "after c. 322 BC."
Hoover Handbook 1709, with many similar types dated from 196-87/6 BC.

You can see that scholars had a hard time deciding on narrow date ranges for these AE coins. The booklet "Greek and Roman Coins in the Athenian Agora" has many AE types found there illustrated. This type is the first one on figure 14 with "second century BC" proposed for the several types shown there. As others have noted, copper was spent and became worn so that only a very small fraction remain in high grade.

 

The are rumor that a hoard of Athenian tets and staters from elsewhere was found in 2018 . About half ton - about 30000 coins . Lots of people heard about it , but no one knows the details . I don’t have any Owl from that find , but I do have Pamphylia stater , attributed as part of this hoard .
I bought it from the reputable seller , he is also a member on this forum .

 

I thought similar. There is nothing in that group that makes me think they belonged to a museum. Cleaning is easy to most dealers who deal in such stuff. My guess is more like payment for a sale was Athenian tets, and the owner put them in a pot and buried them. Owner dies, no one knows where pot is, and its found 2400 years later.

 

I agree with @mikebell .

ATHENS FRACTIONAL OWLS - AR & AE


Athens Attica 454-404 BCE AR 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 R BMC 224

 

Before this hoard hit the market, owl tetradrachms were not that many. You need to take into account that what may seem as a single design is actually thousands of different dies. The particularity is that the designs are very similar and so people see it as a single coin. Are tetradrachms from Syracuse more rare? Before 2016, I would say that each auction featured more tets from Syracuse that owl tets. But the designs in Syracuse differ drastically giving the impression those coins are more rare.

 

I have posted this one before, but everyone must have the perfect Tet. I enjoy the possible history around these:

I understand that the Greek World outside the Athens Empire struck test marks / bankers marks between the Owls eyes... to show disrespect for Athens. However, Greeks would not strike on Athena’s face, as they did not want to anger the Goddess.

I understand that Athens Tets struck with bankers marks on Athena’s face were probly circulating outside the Greek world, either cuz they did not know, did not care, or wanted to slam the Greeks.

I think my Little Lady Tet has “been around”.


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

 

I am not sure about "not many". Owls have always been plentiful. I would consider it by far the most common large archaic type of Greek coin. The only tet more common than them were the Alexander and successor pieces IMHO. I owned a few even before the hoard hit, and I don't necessarily collect greek, they were just common.

 

A measure of how many coins were made is how often you see die duplicates. There are rare coins that only survive from one die set. There are common coins (like late Romans) where it is very unusual to see a die match. How many die duplicates of the Classical period owls can you find? The coins of Syracuse were published as a die study almost a century ago (Boehringer). The scholarly works on Athens show a few samples of broad groups in the Archaic and early Classical period. Why do we not have a die study of the Mass owls? I would really like to know how many dies were represented in the 'recent' hoard. 30,000 seems like a lot of coins but I suspect the entire output of mass period owls made would be a number that would frighten us all. I have not read any of the literature that addressed the question of owl dies. Have you? If I were extremely wealthy, I might collect Syracuse by die (733 pairings of 364 obverses and 500 reverses?). I'm sure he missed a few but 733 coins is not all that many coins for a rich person. Allowing for varying grades, a set might come in at $1 million and take most of a lifetime to find. I know more than one collector with that much in coins. Now try to get a set of owls by die. Lets make it easy and only try for the mass period owls tetradrachms from the last half of the 5th century (no archaic, no transitional, no pi, no new style). How many coins would you need. How long would it take?

Syracuse: I have two tetradrachms. 731 to go? Can anyone catalog my first one? (c.480 BC?)


Boehringer 703 (v345/r481) (very late in the series - c.420's???)
http://www.magnagraecia.nl/coins/Area_IV_map/Syracusa_map/Boehringer_597.html

 

I actually said "not that many" which has a different meaning....Open any auction catalog before 2016, you may see 1-3 examples auctioned. As you may see 1-3 or even more Syracuse tets. There are a couple of auctions ending in a few days with 150+ examples each. Each of their auctions features such numbers. We can't compare to alexander tets as these were minted in dozens of different cities, that's why I compared to Syracuse, both cities being quite strong and influential.

 

Not arguing that today is more volume, but I remember other hoards of Athenian tets hitting the market at times. They were a little scarcer for a few years 2012-2016, but more available before 2010. Even going back to before 2016, I would wager they are the most common "archaic" tet in almost any period of interest. Syracuse tets are more classical, as are Alexandrine and successors.

We can agree to disagree.

 

They are the "most common" ancient coin. Every auction has scores of them. I am surprised that prices have not tanked, since that 30K hoard was found. There are probably more of these/ then all Roman/ Byzantine aurei/ solidi known in collections.

 

Mostly because the tetradrachm was widely used for international trade and ended up all over the ancient world.

It was the ancient world’s version of the Spanish Milled Dollar. Everyone trusted it and valued it due to its high purity and reliable weight.


Oh and my owl: