★ Unique and Unpublished ★

Uncertain Levantine Region (Gaza?) AR Tetradrachm. Imitating Athens, circa 450/440-400 BC. Head of Athena right, wearing crested Attic helmet ornamented with three olive leaves above visor and spiral palmette on bowl, round earring with central boss and pearl necklace / Owl standing to right with head facing, crescent behind, letter before; all between two laurel branches within round incuse. Unpublished. 17.48g, 25mm, 1h.

Near Extremely Fine; from dies of fine style, well centred, and lightly toned with golden iridescence. Unique and unpublished.

Ex Leu Numismatik AG, Auction 3, 27 October 2018, lot 81;
Ex European collection, formed before 2005.

According to the atthidographos Philochorus of the 3rd century BC, the Athenian tetradrachm was known colloquially and throughout the ancient world as glaux (γλαύξ = little owl) and as ‘owl’ to modern numismatics. They circulated in prodigious numbers throughout Asia Minor and the Middle East, where non-Athenian imitative coins provide evidence for the wide popularity of ‘owls’ as a mode of payment. They can be divided into two classes: imitative copies, however competent, which were intended to circulate alongside originals, and those which make no pretense to pass as Athenian coins, but nevertheless reflect familiarity with Athenian types, as is the case with this remarkably original novelty.

The obverse reproduces a slightly stodgy reproduction of Athena’s helmed head in the style of Starr group V, dated after 449 down to about 400 BC. The reverse on the other hand is a completely new rendering of Athena’s sacred bird: stepping right between olive branches - a totally new type previously unknown to numismatics. Reflections of Athenian types mainly occur in the Phoenicia-Phistelia region, some of which were certainly struck at Askalon and Gaza in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC. There is a remarkable conceptional and stylistic similarity with this coin and the well documented Gaza issue dated to about 380 BC, with displays another original rendering of the owl, this time standing facing between laurel leaves and berries (cf. Gitler & Tal p. 116, V.5Ta, ACGC 207 and HGC 10, 532).