Numismatica Genevensis SA
Auction 9 14 December 2015
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Central Greece. Attica, Athens. Tetradrachm c. 455 - 449 BC. (Silver, 17.23g., 25mm). Head of Athena right, wearing an Attic helmet adorned with three olive leaves and a sprig with palmette, and a round earring / ΑΘΕ Owl standing right, head facing, with triple-pronged tail feathers; behind, olive sprig and crescent; all within incuse square. Cf. Starr Group V, series A, 161.
A wonderful coin, very sharply struck from new dies, and with a splendid head of Athena, still bearing a slight "archaic smile" of great charm. The obverse is very slightly double-struck, but on the whole, this is an exceptionally fine piece. Bright, remarkably attractive and virtually as struck.
Provenance: Numismatica Genevensis V, 2 December 2008, 88 (cover coin). UBS 49, 11 September 2000, 116. UBS 47, 14 September 1999, 52. Tkalec & Rauch, 16 November 1987, 89.
Discussing the city of Athens (IACP 361) would be superfluous: it is the best known of all Greek cities and surely is the true cradle of Western civilization. The great scholars of the past have been criticized for what are thought to have been their 'Hellenocentric biases', primarily because this implies that the other peoples who lived in the ancient classical world were clearly less important: the Romans, Celts, Etruscans, Persians, Egyptians, et al. Yet, even though the Athenians had slaves, as all Greeks did, their ideals of democracy are still the ideals held all over the modern world. This coin shows the city's eponymous goddess, Athena, with her familiar owl on the other side: one of her epithets was Glaukopis, bright-eyed, and the name for a little owl, was Glaux. When this coin was struck, a little prior to the mid 5th century, Athens was surely at the height of her power. The Athenian Empire was in full swing and Athens was becoming increasingly wealthy: the Parthenon would be built starting in 447. This magnificent coin testifies to that wealth and pride.
A wonderful coin, very sharply struck from new dies, and with a splendid head of Athena, still bearing a slight "archaic smile" of great charm. The obverse is very slightly double-struck, but on the whole, this is an exceptionally fine piece. Bright, remarkably attractive and virtually as struck.
Provenance: Numismatica Genevensis V, 2 December 2008, 88 (cover coin). UBS 49, 11 September 2000, 116. UBS 47, 14 September 1999, 52. Tkalec & Rauch, 16 November 1987, 89.
Discussing the city of Athens (IACP 361) would be superfluous: it is the best known of all Greek cities and surely is the true cradle of Western civilization. The great scholars of the past have been criticized for what are thought to have been their 'Hellenocentric biases', primarily because this implies that the other peoples who lived in the ancient classical world were clearly less important: the Romans, Celts, Etruscans, Persians, Egyptians, et al. Yet, even though the Athenians had slaves, as all Greeks did, their ideals of democracy are still the ideals held all over the modern world. This coin shows the city's eponymous goddess, Athena, with her familiar owl on the other side: one of her epithets was Glaukopis, bright-eyed, and the name for a little owl, was Glaux. When this coin was struck, a little prior to the mid 5th century, Athens was surely at the height of her power. The Athenian Empire was in full swing and Athens was becoming increasingly wealthy: the Parthenon would be built starting in 447. This magnificent coin testifies to that wealth and pride.