Ancient Greece - 440-404 BCE Attica, Athens Owl AR Tetradrachm NGC MS

Simply stunning mint state example from ancient Greece. A sharp strike, booming luster, a classic design. What else could an ancient collector want? And the price is quite reasonable for such a relic of antiquity that you can own and hold in your hand. NGC gives both the strike and surface a grade of 5/5.

Ruins of the ancient Greek mint in Athens, where this classical beauty was struck.

The Athenian Owl Tetradrachm is the most recognizable ancient coin today. It was the largest silver coin of its time, minted from silver mined at Laurion. In fact, this very coin gave us the expressions of coin's obverse as its "head" and the reverse as the animal's (and coin's) "tail." Such Tetradrachm coins were struck for over 400 years, with the consistent theme of Athena, the goddess of warfare and wisdom, on the obverse, with the owl, her patron animal, on the reverse. This consistency in a numismatic theme served as propaganda, symbolizing Athenian economic and political power.