Didrammi ateniesi “civetta”

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Didramma/statere aureo British Museum number 1946,1101.1

https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=29020001&objectId=1119690&partId=1

Description. Gold coin.(obverse) Head of Athena r., wearing earring and crested helmet decorated with olive-leaves. (reverse) Owl r. within incuse square; to left, olive-spray.

Weight: 8.59 grammes - Die-axis: 12 o'clock

 

[apollonia]

Didramma/statere aureo British Museum (n. di catalogo GC11p13.131)

https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=316606001&objectId=1288323&partId=1

Description Gold coin.(obverse) Head of Athena r., wearing crested helmet decorated with olive-leaves.
(reverse) Owl r.; to l., olive-spray and crescent; to r., kalathos.

Weight: 8.579 grammes - Die-axis: 9 o'clock

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Didramma/statere aureo British Museum (n. di catalogo GC11p13.129)

https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1288325&partId=1&searchText=Athens+owl+gold&page=1

Description. Gold coin.(obverse) Head of Athena r., wearing crested helmet decorated with olive-leaves.
(reverse) Owl r.; to l., olive-spray and crescent; to r., kalathos.

Weight: 8.592 grammes - Die-axis: 8 o'clock

 

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Didramma/statere aureo British Museum (n. di catalogo 1896,0601.45)

https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1287809&partId=1&searchText=Athens+owl+gold&page=1

Denomination stater

Description Gold coin.(obverse) Head of Athena r., wearing triple-crested helmet decorated with foreparts of horses and Pegasos.
(reverse) Owl r. standing on amphora; to r., star between two crescents; all within olive-wreath.

Weight: 8.229 grammes - Die-axis: 2 o'clock

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Triobolo/emidramma aureo British Museum (n. di catalogo 1892,0611.24)

https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1119689&partId=1&searchText=Athens+owl+gold&page=1

Description Gold coin.(obverse) Head of Athena r., wearing earring and crested helmet decorated with olive-leaves.
(reverse) Owl r. within incuse square; to left, olive-spray.

Weight: 2.158 grammes - Die-axis: 12 o'clock

 

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Altre “Civette” aureee battute nelle aste

Diobolo aureo (Triton XII, 5 January 2009, Lot: 246. Estimate $15000. Sold For $67500)

Athens’ Monetary Crisis

ATTICA, Athens. Circa 407/6 BC. AV Diobol (1.43 g, 8h). Head of Athena right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor and a spiral palmette on the bowl / Two owls standing confronted; olive branch between, AΘE in exergue. Fischer 5; Svoronos, Monnaies, pl. 15, 7-8 = Traité III 21 = Head, HN p. 373 = U. Köhler, “Über die attische Goldprägung,” ZfN XXI (1898), pl. I, 5-6; C. Kraay, Coins of Ancient Athens (Newcastle, 1968), pl. III, 11; Schlessinger 13 [Hermitage], lot 899 = R. Carfrae Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 23 May 1894), lot 7 = Photiades Pacha Collection (Hoffmann, 19 May 1890), lot 529 (same dies). VF, scattered minor dings and scrapes. Extremely rare, one of only five known, and the sole example not in a museum collection.

Four examples were previously known: Svoronos, et al., cataloged the Berlin and Paris coins (the latter also illustrated in Fischer), Kraay cataloged a specimen in Oxford, and the last is the Photiades Pasha coin (now in the ANS, acc. no. 1967.152.273). The Paris and Oxford coins are from one die pairing (A/a), and the Berlin, Photiades Pasha, and present coins are from another (B/b).

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Aspetti storici e realizzo del diobolo aureo Triton XII

In 405 BC, the Athenian playwright Aristophanes wrote The Frogs (οἱ Bάτραχοι), and in 392 BC, he wrote The Assemblywomen (αἱ Ἐκκλησιάζουσαι). Both plays contain pertinent references to the monetary situation in Athens resulting from the Peloponnesian War. In The Frogs, ll. 725-726, the Chorus complains that the current employment of less-than-honorable citizens and foreigners in positions of civic leadership is similar to the city-state's recent use of gold issues and so-called "grievous coppers" (πονήροις χαλκίοις) as currency, and in The Assemblywomen, ll. 815-822, one man complains how a decree of 394 BC, declaring these fourrées suddenly worthless, left him quite literally "holding the bag."
 

Suffering from a lack of funds late in the Peloponnesian War, Athens struck its first gold coinage, a clear sign of an economic emergency and one documented in the annual Parthenon inventories. In 413 BC, the Spartans captured Dekeleia and thereby cut off Athens from its main silver source at Laurion. By 407/6 BC, the need to raise funds for the city's defense became so desperate that the authorities ordered the melting down of available gold, including seven gold statues of Nike, which subsequently disappear from the inventory. The gold from this, comprising 14 talents, was then struck in six denominations, from staters to hemiobols. Once these coins were struck, the dies were then deposited in an alabaster box in the Parthenon treasury to ensure that they could not be misused (IG II 2.2, 665).

The "grievous coppers" mentioned in Aristophanes have consistently been interpreted as "official" fourrées, struck when the supply of gold was exhausted by 406/5 BC. Numismatists have subsequently attempted to distinguish this specific issue from those fourrées which were fabricated privately. The 1902 discovery of a sizeable hoard of plated tetradrachms and drachms at the Athenian port city of Piraeus provided the largest single piece of evidence in support of the theory that the fourrées Aristophanes mentioned were "official" issues, and not private fabrications. Re-examining the issue in 1996, John H. Kroll (Essays Oeconomides, pp. 139-142) argued that while the direct evidence was not conclusive that the "grievous coppers" of Aristophanes were "official" fourrées, no plausible alternative hypothesis existed, and that the identification of the 1902 Piraeus Hoard with the emergency coinage struck in 406/5 BC was very persuasive. Few specimens of this hoard survive, as much of the material was melted for its silver. Those remaining handful of pieces, all in the Athens Collection, are of identical distinctive condition, coloration, and style, and were struck from a limited number of dies. Kroll also lists four additional specimens that may belong to the emission of 406/5 BC, based on their fabric and a close stylistic affinity with the extant drachms of the Piraeus Hoard.

Sale: Triton XII, 5 January 2009, Lot: 246. Estimate $15000. Sold For $67500. 

[apollonia]

Altro esemplare di diobolo aureo (Stack's Bowers Galleries, August 2018 ANA Auction).

Lot 20061. Athens
Extremely Rare Athenian Gold Diobol

ATTICA. Athens. AV Diobol (1.43 gms), ca. 407/6 B.C.
Svoronos-pl. 15#7. Head of Athena facing right wearing crested Attic helmet adorned with palmette and olive leaves; Reverse: Two owls standing confronted, olive branch between, ethnic in exergue. Minor scuffs, though commensurate with the assigned condition.

EXTREMELY RARE, and one of only six known examples. This is one of only two examples which is not in a museum collection. The Athenian Diobols have two distinct die pairings (easily discerned by the central letter's position relative to the olive branch; directly below [Paris and this example] or to the left [Berlin example]).

Of the utmost historical importance. As the Peloponnesian War dragged on, Athens found itself facing a monetary crisis. It attempted to rectify this situation by producing its first gold coinage. Around 413 B.C. Athens found herself cut off from its main source of silver at Laurion and after four years the need for additional funds prompted the melting down of seven golden statues of Nike. This action produced fourteen talents of gold, which was minted into six denominations from Staters to Hemiobols. Once the mintage was finished, the dies were hidden away in an alabaster box in the Parthenon to prevent misuse. NGC EF, Strike: 4/5 Surface: 4/5.
From the John Whitney Walter Collection.

Starting price: 12.000 USD - Estimate: 20.000 USD - Result: 84.000 USD

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Pezzo uniface d’oro attribuibile per lo stile e le dimensioni alle emidramme del gruppo di Seltman (CNG 88).

ATTICA, Athens. Circa 510-500/490 BC. Uniface AV presentation piece(?) (10mm, 3.14 g). Helmeted head of Athena right / Blank. Fine, pierced for suspension, slight die shift, spots of earthen encrustation.
The style and size of the obverse used conform to Seltman’s Group L hemidrachms.

CNG 88, lot 235, 14.09.2011

Estimate $300, Sold For $3250

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Tritartemorion o 1/16 statere Au Atena/Civetta coniato a Palermo al tempo di Pirro, circa 280-175 a. C. (Triton VII).

SICILY, Panormos. Time of Pyrrhos of Epiros. Circa 280-275 BC. AV Tritartemorion - 1/16th Stater (0.54 gm). Struck circa 276 BC. Helmeted head of Athena right / Owl standing right; PA monogram to left. SNG ANS 576; SNG Lloyd 1671 (Tauromenion; same dies); SNG Copenhagen -; Jameson -; Gulbenkian -; Pozzi -; Weber 1736 (Tauromenion; same dies); BMC Sicily pg. 122, 6. Nice Fine. Very rare. ($1000)

From the James A. Ferrendelli Collection. Ex Classical Numsimatic Group 29 (30 March 1994), lot 32.

This small gold tritartemorion, struck on the Attic standard, was probably a donative issue struck after the capture of Panormos by Pyrrhos of Epiros. The tritartemorion and companion hemiobol (see lot 76 below) both carry the same ethnic monogram and have in the past been attributed to Tauromenion (see Head, HN, pg.188), as this monogram is also found on their coinage.

Triton VII, 12 January 2004, Lot: 75. Estimate $1000. Sold For $950.