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#141
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On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 19:05:58 -0500, Reid Goldsborough
wrote: Here's a pic of it, only a middling pic (too much glare, which obscures some of the detail) -- I need to retake the pic at some point: http://rg.cointalk.org/misc/Archaic_Owl.html I reshot the same coin, above, with the photo at the same URL, above. Here's some more information about it, and the history behind it. But first, let me correct one thing I wrote earlier about this coin. I wrote that the coin was likely minted for the buildup of the Hellenic navy when I should have written Athenian navy. Thanks for the correction, Michael. The coin is an Archaic Owl tetradrachm weighing 16.3g and was minted in Athens c. 490-482 BC. It can be attributed as Sear 1842v., Seltman Group Gi, Price and Waggoner Group IVg, Szego 3. This was one of the first Owls, and it's also one of the finest styled of the archaic Owls, with Athena having a relatively small head, long neck, and fine overall features. Paul Szego described the styling of this variety as "primitive" but "permeated with the sweet freshness of archaic charm." This coin in all likelihood was minted to build up the Athenian navy in preparation for the anticipated Persian invasion, which would take place in 480 BC. The Greek victory over the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis 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 Georg Hegel, "The interests of the world's history hung trembling in the balance." Afterward, 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. The Battle of Marathon of 490 BC is better known to us today because of the heroics of a lone long-distance runner, but the Battle of Salamis was far more momentous. -- Email: (delete "remove this") Coin Collecting: Consumer Protection Guide: http://rg.ancients.info/guide Glomming: Coin Connoisseurship: http://rg.ancients.info/glom Bogos: Counterfeit Coins: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos |
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#142
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The joys of numismatic research
mailto:
referto: a review of her book by classics professor Hillary Susan Mackie referenced at: Hilary Mackie, "Deborah Tarn Steiner, The Tyrant's Writ: Myths and Images of Writing in Ancient Greece," Mythosphere, 1 (1997). Book Review http://dacnet.rice.edu/Faculty/?FDSID=67 Topic: Libertas Americana Medal Referenced at: https://books.google.com/books?id=wi...page&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=wi...page&q&f=false |
#143
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The joys of numismatic research
On Monday, March 15, 2004 at 7:05:58 PM UTC-5, Reid Goldsborough wrote:
Anybody have some "knowledge finds" they'd like to share. With me, acquiring information and knowledge is every bit as rewarding as acquiring coins. Case in point. Last night, in finishing reading through information from articles and books I've collected but hadn't yet gotten to, I uncovered some *really* interesting stuff about a coin I bought about a year ago, which before I knew relatively little about. It's an ancient coin, an Athenian Owl, but it's not one of the common classical Owls typically dated 449-413 BC (interesting coins too) but rather a rarer archaic Owl that preceded these. I bought it unattributed from Harlan Berk, who had just bought it himself a couple of hours earlier, at a major coin show. Because of this, I got a very good deal on the coin. But I had some work to do. g Here's a pic of it, only a middling pic (too much glare, which obscures some of the detail) -- I need to retake the pic at some point: http://rg.cointalk.org/misc/Archaic_Owl.html The coin grades aVF, a decent enough grade (for my purposes) with these coins, which are often badly beat up, even those illustrated in reference sources. Specimens are available in nicer condition, but prices can soar into the stratosphere (five figures). I knew of course that the coin was an archaic Owl, but in looking through Sear and Wildwinds I couldn't further attribute it with any confidence. Last night I finished reading through, and looking very carefully at, the most widely used references for these coins, including Starr's Athenian Coinage, Kraay's Archaic Coins of Athens, and Seltman's Athens: Its History and Coinage Before the Persian Invasion. But the most useful source, and the one that nailed the attribution of my coin (persistence pays!), was Price and Waggoner's Archaic Greek Coinage: The Asyut Hoard, which documents in exquisite detail a hoard of about 900 Greek silver coins dug up by Egyptian workmen in 1969. The very unusual thing about this hoard is that despite the irrational laws in source countries, most of the coins in this hoard were documented. Typically coins dug up in source countries are secretly ferreted out of the country and into the market via shady characters in source countries and European middlemen without any knowledge about the find spots and so on being preserved. These Asyut Hoard coins reached the market the same way, but somehow information about their finds spot and the coins in the hoard was preserved, with photos made, which furthered the state of numismatic knowledge. No mention was made in the book about why or how this happened with this particular hoard. Almost always stuff like this, close to the source, is hush-hush. Lives have been lost, literally, when finders and others have been exposed. By reading this book, I was able to determine that my coin was in all likelihood minted c. 490-482 BC. It's one of the finest styled of the archaic Owl coinage, with Athena having a relatively small head, long neck, and fine overall features compared with other archaic Owls. But here's the really interesting part. This coin, part of a large emission of the same variety, was in all likelihood minted to build up the Hellenic navy in preparation for the anticipated Persian invasion, which would take place in 480 BC and which would determine the subsequent course of Western history. The Greeks defeated the Persian fleet at Salamis in a battle that has been called the "supreme confrontation between East and West," between despotism and individual freedoms (Hanson). Afterward, the Greeks for the first time formed a formal allegiance of the various Greek city-states (the Delian League) and were able to continue their unprecedented experimentation with individualism and democracy. This ushered in the golden age of ancient Greece, the thinking of men such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and the genesis of Western science, philosophy, and civilization. Back to coins. g. I was also able to attribute my coin as Sear Greek 1842v. (for variety), Seltman Group Gi, Price and Waggoner Group IVg, Szego 3. Fun stuff. -- Email: (delete "remove this") Coin Collecting: Consumer Protection Guide: http://rg.ancients.info/guide Glomming: Coin Connoisseurship: http://rg.ancients.info/glom Bogos: Counterfeit Coins: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos mailto: referto: a review of her book by classics professor Hillary Susan Mackie referenced at: Hilary Mackie, "Deborah Tarn Steiner, The Tyrant's Writ: Myths and Images of Writing in Ancient Greece," Mythosphere, 1 (1997). Book Review http://dacnet.rice.edu/Faculty/?FDSID=67 Topic: Libertas Americana Medal Referenced at: https://books.google.com/books?id=wi...page&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=wi...page&q&f=false |
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