English: Greek Silver Tetradrachm of Athens (Attica). Among the Finest Known Late Archaic Athenian TetradrachmsATTICA, Athens. Silver. Tetradrachm. 17.09 g. Ca. 520-510 B.C.E.

Head of Athena right in crested Attic helmet adorned with spiral ornament behind ear / AOE. Owl standing right with head facing; olive sprig behind; all in incuse square

Condition: About extremely fine.

Published: Seltman 302d. H.A. Cahn, ‘Dating the Early Coinages of Athens’, Kleinr Schriften zur Munzkunde une Archaologie, 1975, p. 94, fig. 5a.

Provenance: E.P. Warren sale, Sotheby’s, 5 July 1910, lot 13. Kunstfreund sale, 1974, lot 25.

A superb example of one of the earliest owls. A witness to the birth of Athenian democracy?

The earliest coinage of Athens, in the sixth century B.C., consisted of silver coins with many different types, as was the case on the electrum of Asia Minor. These coins are known as Wappenmunzen or ‘heraldic coins’, since it has been thought that the types were heraldic devices of the persons responsible for each issue.

At the end of the sixth century, these coinages were replaced with the familiar ‘owls’, depicting the patron goddess of the city and her sacred bird (the owl) and tree (the olive sprig). These designs were to remain standard on Athenian coinage for centuries, but the possible reasons for the change from the heraldic coins are intriguing. The designs and the inscription make it clear that the new coinage was a civic one, and not produced on the authority of any individual.

Although the chronology of the introduction of the owls is still much debated, a date of about 520-510 is generally accepted. The second half of the sixth century saw Athens under the control of the tyrant Pisistratus (560-527 B.C.) and his sons Hipparchus and Hippias (527-510 B.C.). The tyrants were removed in 510 B.C., and democracy established. Is it fanciful to see the coinage as a reflection of these momentous events? The Wappenmunzen could be seen as the coinage of the tyrants, the changing types explained perhaps as the badges of the noble Athenian families to whom Pisistratus gave some privileges and obligations. On this line of reasoning, the new coinage of owls can be seen as a deliberate response to political change; the expulsion of the last tyrant was amrked by a change to a coinage where the authority of the new city democracy was sovereign.

This is one of the earliest owls, belonging to group H of Seltman’s classification, now generally agreed to be the earliest. The early owls often have, like this piece, a magnetic and expressive quality, and rank among the masterpieces of contemporary Athenian art. This quality was, however, shortlived. The discovery of rich veins of silver at Laurium boosted production to such a high rate that the quality of die cutting and striking quickly declined. Many archaic owls are therefore products of haste and unskilled hands.

HUNT I, 58.