Watch List notes:

Greek Coinage

Attica, Athens. Tetradrachm circa 465-460 BC, AR 17.03 g. Head of Athena r., wearing crested Attic helmet with three olive leaves over visor and spiral palmette on bowl. Rev. Owl, with closed wings, standing r. with head facing; in upper l. field, olive twig with two leaves and one berry, crescent; all within incuse square. Seltman group N, nn. 438/439 (A295-P372/P373). Starr group III, 100.
Of lovely style, old cabinet tone and about extremely fine/extremely fine

Ex ACR e-sale 22, 2014, 310.
The style of the "transitional" Athenian tetradrachms from the late 470s through the early 450s B.C. – Starr's groups II through V – is considered the high mark of Athenian coinage and the coin offered here, classified by Starr on his Group III (n. 100), fits firmly within that frame.
Salient features of Starr Group III are, on the obverse, the overlapping of the crest by the top olive leaf, an increase in the size of the earring, a palmette which often, as in this issue, points to the base of the left leaf and, most of all, a delicate and supple modeling of the smiling cheek (this latter feature being shared with the preceding Group II).
Though an increase of the owl's body is one of the distinctive features of Group III, reverse characteristics of this series - the olive sprig that always forms a right angle and the legend which runs straight along the edge of the incuse; the relatively horizontal cant of the owl's body and the elevation of its tail off the ground line - are also noted in connection with those of preceding Group II-c, where all the decadrachms and didrachms are classified. Even in Seltman's classification, in fact, tetradrachms from Group N are strictly connected with the celebrated decadrachms from Group O and this very coin shows a remarkable similarity to the decadrachm Seltman no. 450 (= Starr no. 59).
The combination of these elements, along with a great state of preservation, makes this specimen a great example of the Athenian coinage at its best.