The Archaic Athenian Owl Coin

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

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[@neptunesmarsh]

Those Classical Athenian owls are abundant in the marketplace, but finding one where the flan was large enough, and the strike well-centered, to show the full curve of the crest in the helmet is a real rarity! Even for collectors on a budget, finding a tetradrachm w/out a test cut comes w/ a hefty premium.

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

It absolutely does! These were Athen's main export after all, so people that received them often tested its silver.

[@StephenSkinner-y1c]

Thank you, I enjoyed that presentation very much. I'm retired now and so only add a couple of less expensive ancient or medieval coins to my collection per year due to now being on a limited budget. While working I did buy 13 owls in very fine+ condition over about 35 years. So, my owls are going from the oldest - One in Classical Style struck from 454 to 449 BC, six Classical in style, struck from 449 to 413 BC, two in Transitional Style dating from 350 to 300 BC, three New Style or Hellenistic Style owls from 166 to 57 BC and one owl from Egypt, Imitative of a Classical Style tetradrachm, struck roughly around 450 - 350 B.C. The Egyptian owl could well be a Late Pharaonic issue struck to pay Greek mercenaries, or just to make trade with Greeks more convenient. I get all 13 out of their trays and admire them regularly!

[@brunoa8485]

Thanks!

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

Thank you very much for the support!

[@brainkill7034]

Absolutely incredible. So glad we are able to witness historical artifacts in this amount of detail. Thank you, and Matt, for sharing!

[@sandrojones8068]

Be happy. Life is short and time demands its due. Love the background music.

[@nazarnovitsky9868]

Thanks for the new video ! 😊

[@johnlee4897]

Really enjoyed this episode as I have an Athenian owl tetradrachm (Attica/Athens 393 - 300BC). It's wonderfully heavy with a full owl and decent Athena details that I'd picked up from a trusted ancients dealer at my local coin fair.

[@Calu114]

Cannot wait to buy one, they’re a must have !!

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

Are you going for a classical or an archaic owl?

[@Calu114]

@@ClassicalNumismatics well whichever I can afford 😅, I’m a really new collector and young so money is the issue. I just bought a denarius during the rule of Marcus Aurelius portraying Faustia, watched your video about her about 3 times to make sure I didn’t miss out on any information. Thank you for the helpful videos !

[@donklaser217]

I have a classical style owl. I love it!

[@DieLuftwaffel]

Absolutely love that owl design, and definitely want one!

[@christopherevans2445]

Good vid. And some nice examples Leo.

[@oldschoolnateguy]

Wonderful, thank you.

[@michaelmcmullen2186]

My favorite coin! ❤

[@DarthPreciousMetals]

What a great video. I love the clasic Aowl, I was lucky to get one. Thabks for sharing

[@heavymetalcoins]

Superb video and coins 😍

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

Thanks! Theres more Athenian coinage to come soon :)

[@bratrcunik4571]

I have a classical style owl. The owl's head is chopped off by the test cut, but I'm happy to have it.

[@PoemedByTony]

I love your videos and you have a great voice!

[@compatriot852]

While the Athenian tetradrachm gets all the attention, we shouldn't forget Athens' smaller silver denominations like the hemidrachm

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

I've got a fun little video on fractions coming soon! :)

[@okiedokie4663]

Great Video!

[@GordonGrant-o1h]

Thanks Leo brilliant as always 👍

[@iskato914six]

I'm still searching for my first Athenian Owl coin. hoping to purchase from you. helpful historical video too! Thanks, Orest

[@theeccentrictripper3863]

No owls in my collection yet, but I saw a ton of them in the Athens Numismatic Museum the other week, and in a few other museums I've been to while I've been in Greece. I'm gonna have to snag one eventually cuz it's such a pretty coin, regardless of what period it's struck in, although I am partial to those extra thick ones like the first.

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

The Dekadrachm they have in their exhibition is a numismatic wonder, did you get a chance to see it?

[@theeccentrictripper3863]

@@ClassicalNumismatics I did indeed! They even have it mounted on a fancy little device that rotates it back and forth, very cool. Honestly being in there was like a dream, the museum itself is in the original collector's mansion which is decorated in classical style, it even has portions of the Iliad and the Odyssey written in Greek on some of the walls, guy was a real philhellene for sure. I saw far too many things to list, rare and common, although a personal favorite was a nice solidus of Julian, one of my favorite emperors. If anyone reading this hasn't been in there it should be your first stop as a numismatist visiting Athens, it's glorious.

[@theeccentrictripper3863]

@@ClassicalNumismatics Also worth mentioning is the sheer quality of their collection, so much of what I saw was incredibly fresh, as if it was minted and sent into a time machine straight to their collection, I'm embarrassed to say nothing I've got quite matches some of their pieces, I've got a pretty fresh Gordian III denarius but even that was outshined by what they've got. Real life goals for sure, gotta make some more bread so I can have a collection a tenth as fancy as they've got.

[@AndrejBk]

really great pieces

[@UKDark_Mark]

Beautiful. And thank you for the educational content - very interesting. I often wonder what you do for a living in the ‘real world’……..

[@leonardodtc4847]

These are quite premium pieces, I never thought of any denomination than Tetradrachm for Athens so these were very interesting.

[@Michel-7.7.7]

Since it's depicted on every world coins catalogue in Germany, i want one of these✌️😎👍

[@caracallaavg]

Love them thick, like the first coin in the vid

[@kitrichardson5573]

Did you know that Theodore Roosevelt carried an Athenian Owl with him for the greater part of his life?

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

I did! If I ever do a video on famous coin collectors he will definitely feature in it

[@kitrichardson5573]

@@ClassicalNumismatics there are so many of them. I think that would be a great show! The eccentric man who wrote Penny Whimsey, comes to mind, the Hunt Brothers trying to corner the market, Colonel Greene with his fanatically parsimonious mother- King Farouk- who is obsession with coins, undoubtedly contributed to the downfall of his reign. Many many of them you might have to make that a mini series.☺️

[@ivdeadelendaest]

My only Owl is an imitation one from the Sabian Kingdom from around 300bc.

[@CapAnson12345]

I love my Athenian Owl. That little guy is my buddy.

[@dogeguy7646]

So I was wondering, where can you find the white outline drawings of the coins that you show?

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

I make them myself

[@danphelps3583]

My only example is a fourree, which seems unusual to me because the coin had such a great reputation in the ancient world. How common is this? The portrait of Athena is nice, but, alas, the owl is so so. I paid about $45 for it in the late 1970s from a reputable dealer who pointed out it was a fourree.

[@AntSfr]

Hi! is it ok to touch the surface of ancient silver coins? Will it affect the patina?

[@andrewmurray2243]

You forgot to include the archaic smile in the tetradrachm. Archaic art is most easily recognized in faces by almond shaped eyes and a smile. Otherwise great video.

[@ClassicalNumismatics]

The "Archaic smile" on the Tetradrachmae is more typical on the Classical pieces, weirdly enough

[@andrewmurray2243]

@@ClassicalNumismatics Oh, interesting. I wonder why that is?