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Athenian Owls were arguably the most influential of all
coins, and the Classical Owl tetradrachm is the most widely recognized ancient coin among the general public today.
Owls were the first widely used international coin. They popularized the practice of putting a head on the obverse
of a coin and a tail (animal) on the reverse. Owls were handled by Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Democritus, Hippocrates,
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, and others whose thinking formed the very foundation of Western
civilization. They remained thematically unchanged, Athena on the obverse, her owl on the reverse, for half a millennium,
through great changes in the ancient world. Because of their centrality, they were known as "Owls" in ancient times as they are today despite many other ancient coins depicting owls in an equally prominent fashion. President Theodore Roosevelt used a Classical Owl as a pocket piece,
which inspired him to order the redesign of U.S. coins early last century.
Athena was goddess of both wisdom and warfare, combining within herself two qualities we find incompatible today
but the ancients didn't, a telling difference between their world and ours. She was the patron goddess of Athens,
one of the greatest cities of all time.
According to ancient Greek mythology, Athena was the daughter of Zeus and his first wife, Metis, whose name meant
"wisdom." Metis warned Zeus that their first son would be more powerful than Zeus himself, which agitated
Zeus so much that when Metis became pregnant he swallowed whole Metis and their unborn child. This gave him a headache,
which he cured by splitting his head open with an axe. (Zeus may have been powerful but he wasn't necessarily smart.)
From the wound came forth Athena, fully grown.
One of Athena's precursors was the Eye Goddess of Neolithic peoples. The wide staring eyes of the Eye Goddess were
all-seeing and all-knowing. Along with being the goddess of wisdom and warfare, in ancient Greece Athena was also
known as an eye goddess and was described as the "flashing eyed." The large almond-shaped frontal eye
on early Owl coins may thus have religious significance. Some disagree, pointing to Attic and Egyptian art and
pottery of the same period with the same frontal eye on human figures.
Athena's attribute, the owl, is still a symbol of wisdom today, though at different places and in different times,
owls have symbolized other things, including dread and death.
The owl species depicted on Athenian Owls is the Athena Noctua, also called the Little Owl or Minerva Owl. Standing
6 to 8 inches and weighing 2.5 to 4.5 ounces, they range from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia. These owls cock their
heads as they do on Owls.
No coin better epitomizes Athens than the Owl, and no city was more central to Greece than Athens. Greece, in turn,
was where the foundation of our way of life, the way we think and interact with one another, was built. Our philosophy,
politics, education, mathematics, science, medicine, art, theater, architecture, and sport all originated in ancient
Greece from relatively inchoate antecedents. The Greeks masterfully developed the very substance of our civilization
from what they inherited from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Minoa.
In contrast, Rome, which surpassed Greece in military success, merely took what it inherited from Greece, and to
a lesser extent from Etruria, and imparted more order to it, with relatively little original thought or innovation.
Rome was Greece, just more organized with its systematized roads, aqueducts, sewers, and army. There's a reason
that Augustus, the first and greatest of Roman emperors, used a figure of Alexander the Great as his personal seal
aside from the latter's military success, the same reason Rome granted Athens special status, regarding it as the
cradle of civilization. Greece experienced a creative explosion that dwarfed what happened anywhere else through
history with few exceptions, such as Sumer, Imperial China, Renaissance Europe, and arguably the post-World War
Two United States.
It can be enjoyable to follow Western civilization today back through key contributions by various peoples, allowing
for numerous other influences along the way. Admittedly oversimplifying, the Americans gave us the nuclear age,
space exploration, and the Internet, the English industrialization, the Renaissance Europeans independent thought
and discovery (again), the Romans organization and Christianity, the Greeks science and democracy, the Lydians
coinage, the Babylonians codified law, and the Sumerians how we tell time, the wheel, and writing.
The attraction of Owls, in short, stems from the impossible age of the coins, their beauty, their mythological symbolism, their wide appeal in ancient times, and the fact that they came from where Western civilization originated. Owls may not be considered among the most beautiful of ancient coins, but there's charm in their simple aesthetics. For the most part they're also far from being rare coins, but there's charm as well in their utility, the undeniable reality that they were used and used widely.
What follows is a pictorial story of the Owl through time. The focus here is on tetradrachms, the most common denomination
and the largest next to the rare dekadrachms and gold staters. It's the tetradrachms that are known as "Owls." Athenian coins depicting owls were also minted in a host of smaller denominations,
including didrachms, drachms, tetrobols, hemidrachms, diobols, trihemiobols, obols, tritartemorions, hemiobols,
trihemitartemorions, tetartemorions, hemiartemorions, and bronzes. The smaller fractions, used for everyday market
transactions and hoarded less, typically were struck less carefully, circulated more, and are found in worse condition
than tetradrachms.
The Owl silver coinage ended in the middle of the 1st century BC, but some Athenian bronzes featuring an owl continued
well into Roman Imperial times until the end of ancient Athenian coinage c. 267 AD. As you'll see, much later the
Classical Owl tetradrachm was widely remembered, and honored, on coinage and elsewhere. |
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Archaic Owl tetradrachm
(16.24g, 22mm), Athens, c. 490-482 BC, Sear 1842v., Seltman Group Gi, Price and Waggoner Group IVg, SNG München 29,
Szego 3.
As an Archaic Owl, this was among the first Owls, and
it's also one of the finest styled, with Athena having a relatively small head, long neck, and fine overall features, though Athena's nose unnaturally merges with her forehead.
The numismatist Paul Szego described the styling of this variety as "primitive" but "permeated with the sweet freshness
of archaic charm." The above specimen has a weakly struck obverse and a flan crack at the edge and near Athena's ear.
Owls appeared on Athenian coins before Archaic Owls, on some of the Wappenmünzen, the so-called heraldic money
supposedly issued by prominent Athenian noble families in a multiplicity of types beginning c. 545 BC, though it's
unclear if these coins were actually issued this way. It wasn't until the larger tetradrachm-size Owls were issued
c. 510 BC, at about the same time as the establishment of Athenian democracy under Kleisthenes, that Athens settled
on the Athena and owl design. Like all Archaic, Classical, and Intermediate Style Owls, the above specimen depicts
on the reverse an olive sprig. This refers to Athens' large export of olive oil, which along with silver and pottery
were the main reasons for her prosperity.
The above coin in all likelihood was minted to build up the Athenian navy in preparation for the anticipated Persian
invasion of Greece. The Greek victory over the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC would determine
the subsequent course of Western history, a epochal moment that the historian Victor Davis Hanson called the supreme
confrontation between East and West, between despotism and individual freedoms. About Salamis, wrote the 19th century
philosopher Georg Hegel, "The interests of the world's history hung trembling in the balance."
After their victory at Salamis, the Greeks were able to continue their embryonic, and unprecedented, experimentation
with individualism and democracy. For the next three and a half centuries, Greek ideals about constitutional government,
private property, free scientific enquiry, rationalism, and separation between political and religious authority
would permeate lands from Italy to India, and via the Roman Empire, would spread through Europe and on to us, though
not without interruption and regression.
The Battle of Marathon of 490 BC is better known to us today because of the heroics of a lone long-distance runner, and the Battle of Thermopylae because of a recent Hollywood movie,
but the Battle of Salamis was far more momentous. |
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Classical Owl Type A full-crest tetradrachm (17.05g, 23mm), Athens, c. 449-431 BC, Sear 2526v., Starr Pl. 22 No. 3, Svoronos Pl. 11 No. 7.
In contrast to Archaic Owls, Athena's helmet on this
and other Classical Owls is decorated with a floral scroll (flowery design), sometimes referred to as a palmette (stylized palm leaf), and three olive leaves and the reverse includes
a crescent moon. Like a wreath of triumph, the floral scroll probably refers to the Greek victory over the Persians,
though some regard it as merely decorative. Some regard the crescent moon as merely referring to owls' nocturnal
activities. Others believe it refers to the Battle of Marathon, though this battle took place during a full moon.
It more likely refers to the Battle of Salamis, which was more decisive and took place shortly before the addition
of this feature to Owls. As with Archaic Owls, the reverse includes an olive sprig, sometimes referred to as an olive twig or olive spray.
Compared with most earlier Classical Owls, whose minting began c. 478 BC, Athena's hair on this and other "mass" or "standardized"
(they're far from completely standardized) Classical Owls sweeps across her forehead in one series of parallel curves, the owl's head
is straight and body long, and the owl's tail feathers end in a single prong rather than appearing as separately
delineated feathers. Mass Owls are both the most common and most celebrated of Athenian Owl tetradrachms.
As on all Classical and Archaic Owls, Athena retains her archaic frontal, more or less almond-shaped eye. This anachronism,
which happened despite the introduction of perspective and realism on coins elsewhere in Greece at the time, was
no doubt a deliberate means Athens used to retain the easy recognizability and acceptance of Owls as money throughout
the known world and the profits it earned from minting them. As on other Classical Owls, Athena wears a pearl earring
and what's typically described as a necklace, but what often looks like a necklace is actually the top of her aegis, or breastplate.
Unlike with the vast majority of Classical Owl tetradrachms, the horse-hair crest of Athena's helmet on this specimen is still on the
flan. Most Classical Owl tetradrachms have flans that are too small for the coin's full design. Because of their relative rarity, full-crest Owls
carry a substantial premium. This isn't a perfect coin, however. There are also small digs at Athena's hair and in the floral scroll. The aegis at Athena's neck is mostly off the flan. On the reverse, the AQE ethnic is weakly struck, as are the owl's feet.
The AQE ethnic, an ethnic being a type of legend identifying a people, is sometimes written in English instead as AOE or A-TH-E. The three Greek letters are actually alpha, theta, and epsilon, with the theta appearing as an O with a dot in the middle and having a TH sound. (In modern Greek theta is represented as an O with a line in the middle, while earlier in Greece it was represented as an O with either a cross or X in the middle). As with most ancient Greek coins, the genitive (possessive) case was used for the legend, so instead of "Athens" it means "Of the Athenians."
Despite the popularity of mass Classical Athenian Owls, their dating and attribution is one of the great
underexplored areas of ancient numismatic scholarship. Chester Starr in 1970 called this area a "wasteland"
and said a die study of these coins, because of their sheer numbers, would be a "terrific labour." Because of the number of dies used, David Sear told me in a 2009 email interview that he hasn't found a single die match over the years involving any of the Owls sent to him to authenticate with the specimens published in Corpus of the Ancient Coins of Athens by John Svoronos (completed after the author's death by Behrendt Pick in 1975). Some, however, have attempted to more narrowly date mass Classical Owls according to style.
Mass Owls are most commonly dated widely, c. 449 to 413 BC, in the U.S. at least. That's how Sear dated them
in his standard 1978 reference Greek Coins and Their
Values. He in turn based his dating on Chester Starr's
1970 book Athenian Coinage, 480-449 B.C. But not all dealers and auction houses date these coins this way,
and some new hoard evidence has surfaced since Sear's 1978 book.
The 449 date comes from the Athenian Coinage Decree, which sought to force Athens' allies to use Athenian coins,
weights and measures and which is thought to have occurred c. 449 BC (some scholars believe it occurred later).
The 413 date comes from the cessation of income from Athenian allies and the Laurion silver mines that occurred
near the end of the Peloponnesian War, which Athens lost to Sparta.
Some dealers date mass Classical Owls c. 449 to 393 BC, with the 393 date coming from the change-over to
the profile-eye Intermediate Style Owls of the fourth century BC at about the time of the arrival of a large influx
of Persian money after Athens had regained its independence and democracy. Other dealers use yet other dating:
c. 479 to 393 BC (after SNG Cop.), c. 449 to 420 BC (after Dewing), c. 449 to 415 BC, c. 479 to 413 BC, c. 448
to 415 BC, c. 449 to 404 BC, and after c. 449 BC.
In his 1993 book The Athenian Agora, Vol. XXVI: The
Greek Coins the Athenian Agora, John Kroll argued
that because of recent hoard evidence he felt minting began c. 454 BC, probably with the moving of the Athenian
League treasury from Delos to Athens. Kroll indicated that after 413 BC the Emergency Issue fourree tetradrachms
were struck (c. 406/405 BC) and that afterward this token coinage was gradually withdrawn and replaced with good-metal
tetradrachms minted previously until the inception of the Intermediate Style coinage c. 393 BC. According to Colin
Kraay in his 1976 book Archaic and Classical Greek
Coins, production of Athenian silver coinage virtually
ceased from c. 411 to 407 BC and totally ceased c. 406 to 393 BC.
Some auction houses break down the dating of mass Classical Owls according to style, giving them dates,
for instance, of c. 430 BC, c. 415 BC, and c. 410 BC. Paul Szego made some
interesting observations about the stylistic changes in mass Classical Owls in his January/February 1942 Coin Collector's Journal article. Kroll covered this issue briefly. In his 2007 book
Le monnayage en argent d'Athènes, Christophe Flament divided mass Classical Owls into three classes. He dated his Group I 460-440 BC, Group II 440-420 BC, and Group III 420-405 BC, also based on stylistic, not die, analysis.
I earlier did a similar stylistic analysis. What I've noticed from looking at many hundreds of these coins, as well as those that preceded and followed them,
in collection and auction catalogs and in person is that the mass Classical Owls that were likely issued
earlier, compared with those issued later, tend to have the following characteristics:
- Athena has a wider, smiling mouth that can appear as a
smirk rather than a short mouth that's neutral in affect or that curves slightly downward, forming a frown.
- Athena has a more protruding rather than a flatter face.
- The eye of Athena is smaller and more symmetrical, with
the curve forming the upper half mirroring the curve forming the lower half, rather than the two sides being asymmetrical.
- The floral scroll on Athena's helmet is smaller rather
than larger.
- The owl has shorter rather than longer claws.
- The inscription consists of smaller rather than larger
letters.
- The incuse square is more clearly visible on the coin's
flan rather than being off it.
The above follows from the logic that earlier mass
Classical Owls likely issued between c. 449 (or slightly earlier) and c. 431 BC are more similar stylistically to earlier Classical
Owls commonly dated between c. 478 and c. 449 BC. With the huge numbers of mass Classical Owls minted,
with the many different dies used, and with the many different die engravers likely used, there are no doubt plenty
of exceptions to the above generalities, and there's nothing that appears to be close to conclusive to date Classical Owls to specific decades.
The most interesting difference between the earlier and later mass Classical Owls is that with the later
issues Athena has lost her confident smile. These later Owls were likely minted during the Peloponnesian War, which
Athens would lose. On subsequent Intermediate and New Styles Owls, Athena would never regain that confident smile,
just as Athens never regained her preeminent position in the Greek world, at least militarily.
The subtly smiling mouth, close to symmetrical eye, and longer face of the above specimen suggests it's an earlier mass
Classical Owl, minted during the height of Athenian power to finance the building of the Parthenon and other projects
before the beginning of the Peloponnesian War c. 431 BC. Based upon the smile, I'm calling varieties such as the
above specimen Type A. Mass Owls have the distinction of being used to both help build Athens into a great city through the financing of the Parthenon and other building projects and destroy its supremacy through the financing of the disastrous Peloponnesian War that Athens lost to Sparta.
Owls for the most part weren't used for everyday commerce because their buying power was far too high. Compared with smaller fractions, they show up infrequently in archeological excavations in the Athenian agora, or marketplace. They were used instead for large transactions such as building projects, payment for war supplies and personnel, and international trade.
The great majority of mass Classical Owls weigh from 16.8g to 17.2g, exceptions including significantly corroded specimens. Among the variations I've seen, along with the differences spelled out above, are
specimens that have a lock of hair in front of Athena's forehead, a pronounced dot on the owl's forehead, a theta without
a central dot, and an A with a tilted rather than straight crossbar. |
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Classical Owl Type A full-crest tetradrachm (17.06g, 26mm), Athens, c. 449-431 BC, Sear 2526v., Starr Pl. 22 No. 3, Svoronos Pl. 11 No. 7.
As with the previous two piece, this is a full-crest Owl. But like most full-crest Owls, with this specimen another part of the obverse design is either truncated or crowded against the edge, in this case the nose. It's unclear why the ancient Athenians, inventors of democracy and individualism, couldn't figure out how to hammer their coin planchets a bit to spread them enough for there to be space for the entire coin design. This piece also exhibits three test cuts on the reverse. Unlike most test cuts, however, these appear to be carefully placed, from the edge inward and fairly equally spaced.
As with all Owls, Athena wears an Attic (also called an Athenian) helmet in contrast to a Corinthian helmet, which appears on among other
coins Alexander the Great gold staters and Corinthian silver staters (there's longstanding debate over whether
Corinthian staters depict Athena or Aphrodite, though the figure on these coins is typically referred to as Athena).
In contrast to the Attic helmet depicted on Owls, the Corinthian helmet had a nose piece and relatively small openings
for the eyes and mouth (better protection but poorer visibility and hearing). The Attic helmet had a hinged visor
that's pulled up on Owls but could be dropped down for greater protection of the face during battle.
Among other coins depicting an Attic helmet are electrum staters of Kyzikos (Sear Greek 3478) and Seleukos I tetradrachms
portraying Alexander/Seleukos I (Sear Greek 6833). Along with the Attic and Corinthian helmet, also depicted on
ancient Greek and Roman coins is the Phrygian helmet, appearing on, for instance, coins of Velia (Sear Greek 455).
Other helmets used in ancient Greece included the Illyrian, Chalcidian, Thracian, and Macedonian, among others. |
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Classical Owl Type A test-cut, countermarked, and corroded tetradrachm (16.62g, 27mm), Athens, c. 449-431 BC, Sear 2526v.
As with the previous two pieces, this is also a full-crest Owl. But it may be the ugliest Owl I've ever seen. Its surfaces
exhibit significant wear, from use in ancient times, and severe corrosion, from how the coin has reacted to its
environment in being buried for 25 centuries, which combined nearly obliterate the coin's detail. The coin apparently
was found with the silver toned completely black and was partially cleaned, with the original silver sulfide toning
visible as ugly black splotches in the recesses and corrosion pits. Two test cuts, on obverse and reverse, plus
a reverse countermark further mar the surfaces.
Yet there's interest in the ugliness, with the coin exemplifying well what time can do. And there's other interest
as well. This is a scarce full-crest Owl, with the obverse type struck on a flan that's wide enough to include
the complete crest of Athena's helmet, yet Athena's head is still well centered, with all of her facial features still on the flan. As with the previous two Owls on this
page, Athena's has a wide, smiling mouth, indicating this is likely an early, less common Classical Owl. The countermark
has a "skew" pattern, with a two long lines and third short line dividing the space into five compartments,
identical to the design inside the incuse square of late archaic and classical Turtles of Aegina of roughly the
same period, and it may indicate that this coin was countermarked there. Thanks to fellow collector John Tatman
for pointing this out. |
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Classical Owl Type A test-cut tetradrachm (16.91g, 24mm), Athens, c. 449-431 BC, Sear 2526v., SNG Lockett 1841, Szego 13.
The Owl pictured above, like most Classical Owls, is missing most of Athena's helmet crest, though what is visible is a good part of Athena's aegis at her neck. Like many Owls, this piece was test cut in ancient times with a hammer and chisel to authenticate
it, making sure the interior was silver and not bronze or another base metal. This specimen was test
cut twice, with the cut at 9 o'clock having cracked the flan. The crack is most visible on the obverse, but it
has also connected the two test cuts on the reverse. Test-cut Owls can be had on the marketplace at a considerable
discount, generally anywhere from 15 to 50 percent of the cost of a coin not test cut. They're damaged coins --
damaged in ancient times -- but they can still retain much interest and eye appeal. Athenian Owls are the single
most commonly seen test-cut ancient coins. This specimen is very well preserved, indicating it was likely hoarded shortly after it was minted and test cut and experienced little or no wear due to circulation. |
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Classical Owl Type B test-cut and countermarked tetradrachm (17.07g, 24mm), Athens, c. 431-413 BC, Sear 2526v., SNG München 52, Davis 143, Szego
14.
Athena's frowning lips represent the second of three
major varieties of mass Athenian Owls, according to my observations, and I'm calling it Type B.
Like the previous three Owls, this coin was test cut in ancient times and reveals no interior bronze. Like the
Owl two pieces up, this specimen has a countermark, also called a banker's mark, on the reverse to the right of the owl, which
is a mark typically used to certify that the coin is legal tender beyond its place of origin or has been retariffed
at a different value. The upper mark appears to be a Semitic aleph (A), which would suggest that the countermark
is of Middle Eastern origin. Owls are known to have been countermarked in ancient times as far away as India.
The terms "countermark" and "banker's mark" are often used interchangeably for symbols, letters,
or numbers that are stamped into the coin's surface after it has been minted for an official purpose. Countermarks
are distinguished from graffiti, which are engraved or scratched markings created unofficially. The term "punchmark"
is sometimes used for a smaller official mark, as distinguished from a larger "countermark." Countermarks,
large or small, are distinguished from "test cuts," which are crude slashes into the metal with a hammer
and chisel to determine whether the coin was a silver- or gold-plated counterfeit. Sometimes these differences
blur, when punchmarks appear to have been used also to reveal the metal in the coin's core. The term "countermark"
or "counterstamp" is also used for the "COPY" or similar indication on modern replicas.
Most test-cut Owls were test cut on the reverse, with most of these in turn being cut through the owl's head. Interestingly,
the test cut on this specimen follows the contours of the owl's body. It's likely that the owl's head was cut in
half so often for one of two reasons. Perhaps coin testers in lands outside the Greek world were sending a message
to Athens, a passive-aggressive protest against Athens' hegemony. Athens was one of the imperial powers of the
day, controlling or exerting influence upon territories beyond its own and generating resentment in the process.
The Egyptians and Judeans and Phoenicians and Syrians and Anatolians and Babylonians may have simply not liked
the snooty Athenians, their pretty bullion, their god, and their god's little owl. Or perhaps, less interestingly,
most test-cut Owls were cut at the owl's head because it was the high point of the reverse and cutting here thus
caused fewer coins to be broken.
Similarly, the reverse rather than the obverse was typically test cut because it was concave, which also led to
fewer coins being cracked during the procedure. If you test cut the convex obverse, there's a cavity under the
reverse as the coin sits on its rim. To prevent the opposite side of the coin from flattening as a result of the
blow from the hammer, the coin was likely first placed on a shock-absorbing surface such as an animal skin.
The test cutting of ancient coins doesn't typically lead to the loss of metal, just its displacement. The weight
of this specimen, for instance, is a full 17.2 grams, despite the sizeable cavity caused by the cut, which is about
2mm deep, and the previous test-cut Owl on this page is also full weight.
In his book Archaic and Classical Greek Coins, Kraay described test cuts as "savage incisions inflicted with
a chisel with no regard for type or legend." He also wrote that hoard finds indicate that test cutting was
normally applied outside the Greek world, where the type (design) on the coin didn't offer the same guarantee of
authenticity and where these coins were treated as bullion. And he wrote that some coins were test cut more than
once by successive owners because old cuts when dirty or tarnished wouldn't reveal the color of the interior metal
and because some forgers created pre-test cut plated fakes.
In their 1988 book Coinage of the Greek World, Ian Carradice and Martin Price wrote that test cutting of ancient
coin in antiquity was a frequent occurrence both inside (in Athens, for instance) and outside the Greek world.
They pointed to a papyrus reference indicating that in Egypt officials were employed to both collect debt and test
cut coins. They also wrote that with some hoards of Greek coins unearthed in the Near East, particularly those
from the archaic period, every single one had been test cut. This and other hoard evidence provides support for
the view that test cutting was more common outside the Greek world, as Kraay wrote. Finally, Carradice and Price
indicated that up to the fourth century BC, simple slashing was the most common method used to authenticate coins.
More intricate countermarks have been used on some coins since the beginning of coinage.
On Lydian Lions, which are the first or among the first of all coins, they appear
to have been used as marks of ownership rather than marks of authenticity or legal tender. Pantikapaoin heavily
countermarked its bronze coinage during the 3rd century BC to retariff it and earn profits in the process. In modern
times banker's marks were used most notably in China from about 1750 to 1920 with large silver coins such as U.S.
trade dollars and Spanish milled dollars. China didn't use silver for native coins, and the banker's marks, called
"chop marks," indicated the coin was tested and determined to be of good silver. |
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Classical Owl Type B test-cut tetradrachm (16.99g, 26mm), Athens, c. 431-413 BC, Sear 2526v.
This specimen has been test cut an astonishing six times,
the most test cuts I've ever seen on an Owl, once on the edge (visible on both obverse and reverse) and five times
on the reverse. (An Owl illustrated in the section on test cuts in Haim Gitler and Oren Tal's 2006 book The Coinage of Philistia of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC also appears to have six test cuts, as is the case with one of the
Owls illustrated in Peter van Alfen's article "The 'Owls' from the 1973 Iraq Hoard" in the 2000 American
Journal of Numismatics.)
This many tests of authenticity on one coin speaks volumes about the high frequency of plated counterfeits that
must have existed and about the paranoia that this likely engendered. The random pattern of test cuts visible on
the reverse of the above piece imparts a jarring modernistic aesthetic that's also quite interesting. The protuberance
near the base of Athena's skull looks like a casting sprue but is actually a flattening of the flan caused by one
of the reverse test cuts.
Not all numismatists agree that test cutting was done to authenticate. Ute Wartenberg and Jonathan H. Kagan in
their paper "Some Comments on a New Hoard from the Balkan Area" in the 1999 book Travaux de numismatique
grecque offerts a Georges Le Rider, Peter van Alfen in his article "The 'Owls' From the 1989 Syria Hoard,
With a Review of Pre-Macedonian Coinage in Egypt" in the 2002 American Journal of Numismatics, and Richard Fernando Buxton in his paper "Chisel Cuts: Bureaucratic Control Marks on Fifth Century Owls in the Near East?" presented at the 2009 Archaeological Institute of America/American Philological Association annual have proposed or commented on a theory that test cutting on Owls represented an elaborate system of bureaucratic control in the Middle East. The logic of such severe gashes into the interior of the metal being used for this purpose, however, is strained.
Not much contemporary documentary evidence exists about ancient coin authentication. An inscription found in 1970
referred to the Law of Nicophon passed in Athens in 375/74 BC, which governed the testing of money. The law required
both official Athenian Owls and imitative Owls originating elsewhere to be tested by Dokimastes (testers). Any
Owl found to be good had to be accepted in commerce. Counterfeit pieces, on the other hand, were to be withdrawn
from circulation.
The law, however, didn't indicate how the coins were to be tested or whether only the purity of the silver or both
the purity and weight should be tested. In his 1998 book The
Power of Money: Coinage and Politics in the Athenian Empire,
Thomas stated his belief: "The purview of the Dokimastes does not seem to have extended to an examination
of coins for their weight. Such calculations may have been left to negotiations between buyers and sellers."
In his 1996 book Quality in Ancient Greece, George Varoufakis stated his belief, on the other hand, that Athenian
and other money testers tested both purity and weight. He suggested that the ancient testers could have used scales
as well as looking, touching, and listening to the sound the coin made when dropped on a tabletop, a practice still
employed by money testers today. Another piece of contemporary evidence is the c. 405 BC play Frogs by Aristophanes
in which the playwright talked about how "coins alone are struck clearly and proven true by ringing."
My belief is that official coin testers within Athens and other cities tested their city's coins by experienced,
nondestructive looking, touching, listening, and weighing. But unofficial testers in areas distant from the city
of origin -- traders and merchants -- didn't concern themselves with the prospect of defacing a piece of foreign
coinage, which was regarded primarily as bullion, and took a hammer and chisel to suspected currency to examine
the inside. Along with Classical and Intermediate Style Athenian Owls, other coins used heavily for intercity trade
were also test cut frequently, including but not limited to Aegina Turtles, Philip II tetradrachms, Alexander the
Great tetradrachms and drachms, Thasos tetradrachms, Sinope drachms, Cherronesos hemidrachms, and Mesembria diobols.
The above specimen was part of a recently unearthed hoard variously reported to consist of from 1,500 to 6,700
Owls, most of which were test cut in ancient times. The hoard is variously reported to have been found in Syria,
Turkey, or Albania. Because of irrational laws in source countries, which claim all things ancient found in their
soil as part of their cultural heritage, even objects made and used by peoples totally different from those currently
living in these countries, secrecy and misinformation reign. Those closest to this hoard, as with many other ancient
coin hoards, likely put out false information about where it originated to avoid tipping off authorities in the
country. If these authorities had become aware of this hoard, they no doubt would have seized it and placed it
in storage, there not being enough museum display space for even a small fraction of the coins in it. |
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Classical Owl Type C tetradrachm (17.12g, 23mm), Athens, c. 431-413 BC, Sear 2526, SNG Cop. 38, SNG Fitz. 3070, SNG Lewis 661,
Dewing 1621, Kroll 8c, Szego 15.
The short neutral lips on this specimen represents the
last of the three main mouth styles of Athena on mass Classical Owls, and I'm calling this variety Type
C. Type A depicts an Athena with a smiling mouth, Type B with a frowning mouth, and Type C with a neutral
mouth.
With Athena's short lips and asymmetrical eye that's beginning to open up at the inner corner, and with no parts
of the incuse square being visible on the reverse, this coin is likely a later mass Classical Owl, minted
after the start of the Peloponnesian War c. 431 BC.
The noted numismatist T.V. Buttrey has disputed the Athenian origin of this and similarly styled Owls, giving them
instead to Egypt. See Sear Greek 2526 for another similarly styled specimen. But thus far the evidence still argues
in favor of Athens. There's no economic reason for Egypt to have minted Owls in great quantity. This and similar
coins are of fine style, without any barbarized features, and the reverse inscription, AQE, remains the same as
on official Athenian Owls, translating into "Of the Athenians." Here's further detail about the issue
of Athenian vs.
Egyptian Owls.
Owls were used heavily for international trade, but they weren't the first coins accepted across international borders. That coin would have been the Aegina Turtle. Athenian Owls, however, were minted in far greater numbers, traveled much further, and were imitated all over the known world at the time. The coins that replaced the Owl as the most commonly used international currency were Alexander the Great's silver tetradrachms and gold staters, which in turn were replaced by the Roman denarius.
The above specimen is beautifully centered and preserved, with attractive frosty surfaces. Here's what it looked
like before
it was cleaned. Some numismatists and collectors
denigrate the aesthetics and commonness of mass Classical Owls. But these coins have their considerable
charm and appeal. The archaic style, marked by still formality and lack of perspective, reinforces the notion that
these coins are products of antiquity. And these coins were monumentally influential. |
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Intermediate Style Owl tetradrachm (17.17g, 23mm), Athens, c. 393-300 BC, Sear 2537, SNG Cop. 63, SNG München 91, SNG Lockett
1873, SNG Delepierre 1469, Dewing 1635.
Intermediate Style Owls such as this coin retain the
same basic Athena and owl design as the previous Classical Owls, though changes were made. The design is both more
refined and coarse. In contrast to the almond-shaped frontal eye of Classical and Archaic Owls, the eye on Athena
finally appears realistically in profile, triangular in shape, catching up aesthetically with other classical Greek
coinage. But Athena's hair and the owl's feathers are rendered with less detail.
Earlier fourth century BC Intermediate Style Owls such as the specimen illustrated above were issued during the
century of Aristotle when Athens continued to flourish intellectually even though its military heyday was over.
Athenian philosophy reached its zenith during the latter fourth century BC with the founding of schools by Diogenes
(Cynics), Epicurus (Epicureans), and Zeno (Stoics).
Most sources indicate that Intermediate Style Owls were minted c. 393-200 BC, though some believe their minting
was interrupted by Macedonian hegemony from c. 330 BC to c. 225 BC. The above thick-flanned coin is likely an earlier
variety, though lacking the remnants of an incuse square, is probably not among the earliest. Later varieties depicted
an owl with even coarser, more pronounced head and body feathers.
This is a beautiful specimen, beautifully preserved and toned. The only real flaw is reverse die wear, causing
the metal to flow incorrectly when the coin was struck and a loss of detail around the owl's beak, sometimes called
a die cud. |
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Intermediate Style Owl test-cut tetradrachm (16.83g, 22mm), c. 393-300 BC, Sear 2537.
This official Athenian coin was test cut twice in ancient
times to authenticate it, once through the owl's head, once through Athena's head. It's the correct weight with
no interior bronze exposed.
This is another ugly coin, with Athena's nose, half of the owl's head, and half of the olive sprig off the
flan. What's more, the force of the reverse test cut flattened the high points of the obverse -- the hair at Athena's
temple and her cheek directly underneath. With this coin as well, there's also interest in the ugliness. |
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Intermediate Style Owl doublestruck test-cut tetradrachm (16.98g, 22mm), c. 393-300 BC, Sear 2537.
This official Athenian coin is distinguished by three characteristics. It was test cut on the reverse in such a way that the owl appears decapitated. It was doublestruck on the obverse. And it has "hoard patina" on both obverse and reverse.
What at first glance looks like it might be a curved test cut on the obverse (there is a straight and fairly unobtrusive test cut on the reverse under the owl's head) is actually the curvature of Athena's chin that has been widened by the double striking. If you look carefully, you can see two right eyes, two right nose nostrils, and two mouths. Despite the use of the term "double struck," what may have happened
with this and similar coins is that the hammer or planchet slipped
during the striking of the coin, causing the double or ghost image,
meaning this didn't necessarily happen with two strikes of the hammer.
What's more, many ancient coins are believed to have been struck with more than one hammer blow to bring up the details of their high-relief design. The term "die slippage" is therefore sometimes used instead of "double struck."
The coin was sold as having "hoard patina." In this case, that's just a euphemism for "serious corrosion." The corrosion has eaten into the metal and appears both in this photo and on the coin in hand not to be elevated above the coin's surface but to be a part of it. Cleaning it would likely just result in the loss of detail and a pitted mess underneath. Thus whoever cleaned this coin stopped where he did. The corrosion, black, appears to be silver sulfide, the same corrosion product that produces beautiful multicolored toning on U.S. silver coins when it's thin. Over many centuries the sulfides in air, water, or soil in the right (or wrong) circumstances continue reacting with the silver until the result is this, a nice example of the inexorable effects of time. Despite the corrosion and the reverse test cut, the coin is still full weight, at 16.98 grams. |
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Intermediate Style Owl cut tetradrachm (7.16g, 25mm), c. 393-300 BC, Sear 2537.
This official Athenian coin was cut in half in ancient
times, no doubt to make change. Owls were frequently treated as bullion in the foreign lands where they traded,
and one way to make change was to cut one in half. This piece was said to have been found in the Middle East, where many Owls circulated and where it would have been
halved more than two millennia ago. It's cut not exactly in half, with this piece being the slightly lighter one
(the other piece wasn't found with this one). It has the look and feel of solid silver, with the interior exposed
at the cut being no different from the surfaces. |
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Intermediate Style oblong Owl tetradrachm (17.16g, 26mm), Athens, c. 287-262 BC, Sear 2547, SNG Cop. 65, SNG Delepierre 1482, Svoronos
Pl. 31 No. 11.
This is a latter Intermediate Style Owl, issued during
the third century BC when Athens was in a period of decline, with the intellectual capital of the world shifting
to Alexandria, Egypt. Athens was precariously independent during the period that this coin was likely minted. Soon
Athens would be under the hegemony of Macedon, then Rome. This period of uncertainty also witnessed a decline in
democratic freedoms and responsibilities. All of this no doubt contributed to the sloppy treatment of the flans
on many of these third century Owls, with little civic pride taken in the coins' aesthetics.
Coinage stopped in Athens under Macedonian domination c. 262-229 BC. The last of the Intermediate Style Owls, the
rare "heterogeneous" issues minted during the late third century BC when Athens again had a measure of
independence if not stability and prosperity, add symbols to the reverse in anticipation of the widespread practice
of doing so with New Style Owls that began during the next century. The symbols used on these heterogeneous issues,
according to Barclay Head in his 1911 book Historia
Numorum, include a gorgoneion, bucranium, prow,
trophy, rudder, cornucopia, wreath, Corinthian helmet, trident, and stern of galley.
The above specimen also has a test cut on the reverse, rendered inconspicuous by the toning, between the owl and
the inscription. The dark, almost black toning appears to be original hoard patina, the surfaces of the coin as
found. Most ancient silver coins are more heavily cleaned, sometimes stripped completely and then retoned to affect
an ancient appearance. |
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New Style Owl tetradrachm
(16.64g, 29mm), Athens, c. 141-140 BC, Sear 2555v., Thompson 729d.
The styling becomes much more elaborate with New Style
Owls. Athena now wears a triple-crested helmet, with the helmet crest in full on the flan, which is larger and
wider than with earlier Owls, in conformity with other coins of this period. The owl now sits on an amphora (jug
that refers to Athens' international olive oil trade) and is surrounded by an olive wreath. Lettering and symbols
mark the date and month of issue and the magistrate responsible for the minting. On this specimen, a quiver (arrow
case) and bow appear in the reverse right field.
Unlike with earlier Owls, fourrees of New Style Owls are rarely seen, and no doubt as a result, authentic specimens are rarely seen test
cut. These were not the widely used international currency of previous Owls.
New Style Owls were minted under Roman domination of Greece, which began with the Battle of Pydna c. 168 BC. The
minting of New Style Owls began c. 166 BC and ended c. 52 BC when Rome stopped the minting of Athens' silver coinage
and replaced it with its own denarii. During the time these coins were minted as well as afterward, Athens was
a semi-autonomous city seen by the Romans as an academic and cultural capital, though Greece as a whole was increasingly
emaciated militarily, economically, culturally, and intellectually. The quality of life in Greece improved after
the ascension of Augustus, the first Roman emperor, in 31 BC and stayed that way during the first two centuries
AD. During the third century AD, disorder within the Roman Empire and barbarian incursions from the outside led
to heavy taxation, instability, and economic decline within Greece.
Athens would be under the Romans until c. 330 AD, the Byzantines from 330 to 1204, the Western Crusaders from 1204
to 1453, and the Ottoman Turks from 1453 to 1827.
The well-regarded numismatist Margaret Thompson tried to establish a dating system for Athenian New Style Owls
in her 1961 book The New Style Coinage of Athens. But her conclusions were widely criticized as inaccurate -- about
30 years too early -- and every time the subject comes up in the literature, it's mentioned that numismatists for
the most part don't agree with her dating.
Otto Mørkholm corrected her dating in his article in the ANS's 1984 Museum Notes. As testimony to her scholarship,
Thompson eventually accepted Mørkholm's corrections. Still, because of Thompson's stature or because they're
unaware of the controversy, some sellers today use her erroneous dating system when attributing New Style Owls.
The reverse of the above specimen shows evidence of slight die slippage, or being double struck. |
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