Nomos AG
Auction 22 22 Jun 2021
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ATTICA
Athens. Circa 510-500 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 25 mm, 17.44 g, 8 h). Head of Athena to right, wearing an Attic helmet, with a crest mounted on a holder made from triangles and pellets, a visor and a spiral ornament on the bowl behind her ear, a disc earring and with the hair over her forehead shown in waves. Rev. ΑΘΕ Tall, slim owl standing right on long legs, head facing; in upper field to left, olive sprig with two leaves and a berry; all within incuse square. Asyut 261-262 var. Cf. Seltman 221-222. Cf. Svoronos, Trésor pl. 5, passim. A superb piece, perfectly centered on a broad flan and exceptionally well-struck. Obverse slightly double-struck on the helmet, showing a second line of crest holder over Athena's ear. Some surface roughness, otherwise, extremely fine.
This coin, with its tall, thin owl and its carefully placed olive sprig, almost certainly must come directly after the coin in the previous lot, with the positions of the ethnic and olive sprig inverted. The careful way it was struck, and the equally careful and stylistically superior way its dies were engraved, also point to an early date in the owl series.
Athens. Circa 510-500 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 25 mm, 17.44 g, 8 h). Head of Athena to right, wearing an Attic helmet, with a crest mounted on a holder made from triangles and pellets, a visor and a spiral ornament on the bowl behind her ear, a disc earring and with the hair over her forehead shown in waves. Rev. ΑΘΕ Tall, slim owl standing right on long legs, head facing; in upper field to left, olive sprig with two leaves and a berry; all within incuse square. Asyut 261-262 var. Cf. Seltman 221-222. Cf. Svoronos, Trésor pl. 5, passim. A superb piece, perfectly centered on a broad flan and exceptionally well-struck. Obverse slightly double-struck on the helmet, showing a second line of crest holder over Athena's ear. Some surface roughness, otherwise, extremely fine.
This coin, with its tall, thin owl and its carefully placed olive sprig, almost certainly must come directly after the coin in the previous lot, with the positions of the ethnic and olive sprig inverted. The careful way it was struck, and the equally careful and stylistically superior way its dies were engraved, also point to an early date in the owl series.