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Athens Pi-Style "Owl" Tetradrachm

Specimen · athens-pi-style-owl-tetradrachm-001

The Coin

Obverse
Obverse — head of Athena right in crested Attic helmet, eye in true profile; three olive leaves over the visor and pi-style palmette on the bowl; round earring and beaded necklace
Reverse
Reverse — owl standing right, head facing; olive sprig and crescent to left; ΑΘΕ to right; raised flan lip along the upper edge

Attribution: Greece (Attica). Athens. Polis of Athens. c. 353–294 BC. AR. tetradrachm.

Obverse: Head of Athena right, wearing a crested Attic helmet with three olive leaves over the visor and a floral palmette on the bowl whose fronds are configured like the Greek letter Π ('pi-style'); round earring and beaded necklace. The eye is now rendered in true profile, abandoning the archaizing frontal eye of the fifth-century owls.

Reverse: Owl standing right, head facing the viewer; olive sprig and crescent to left; traces of the incuse square. Flans of this series are characteristically compact, thick, and irregular.

Weight: 16.98 g (tag) (From Bezayiff tag; not re-weighed. CNG's 2017 cataloguing of this coin gives the same weight.)  Reference: HGC 4, 1599

Related Coin Images

Related
The same coin as photographed by CNG for Electronic Auction 404, lot 145, closed 23 August 2017. See My Notes section for more info.
Image source & licence

Image: Classical Numismatic Group, LLC (cngcoins.com), from the auction listing.

Type-level historical context, attribution detail, and references → Athens Pi-Style "Owl" Tetradrachm

John's Ancient Coin Collection · Specimen · athens-pi-style-owl-tetradrachm-001

Image credits for this coin — photographs, maps and graphics used on this page