Die Tetradrachme von Athen - Moruzzi Numismatica - Münzen Medaillen und Banknoten

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Die Tetradrachme von Athen

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The owl

The so-called "owl" was a silver coin weighing about 16.5 grams, coined in the Athenian mint since the end of the sixth century B.C. On the obverse, there is the goddess Athena head facing to the right with a crested helmet - in the most modern series crowned with an olive branch - and adorned with button earrings. On the reverse instead, in an incuse square, there is the image of the figure who gave the name to the coin: an owl, the Athena's sacred bird, standing with closed wings, with the frontal head and the body faced time by time to the right or left; next to the owl, there are the city name in abbreviated form     and an olive branch placed in the upper left corner of the coin with a small growing number. The iconography of this coin remained almost unchanged over time, as in the common case of wide circulation coins, because the stability of type and weight is a guarantee of reliability and recognition.  The "owl", considered reliable for the good quality of its metal (the silver title in the Athenian drachma remained unchanged for almost four centuries), was accepted anywhere within the territories of Athenian influence and also beyond these boundaries, spreading so in the eastern Mediterranean basin, in the Aegean one, in Asia Minor and in the Arabian Peninsula. The discovery of the rich silver mines of Laurion, located in the Attica region not far from Athens, made possible to coin a truly remarkable amount of these tetradrachms, whose production reached its apex during the Pericles government in the decades between 450 and 430 B.C. The increased production of "owls" is justified, however, in the light of the "currency decree" that Athens emanated around the half of the fifth century B.C. (the date is still debated), prohibiting to the allied cities of the empire to mint coins autonomously and it also provided for the unification of weights and measures, establishing in this way an unified monetary system. The Athenian coin was also widely imitated, especially in Egypt: for this situation, in the third century B.C. it was necessary to establish the role of the public assayer, in order to verify the authenticity of circulating coins. It must be also admitted that there are some sources reporting as follows: during the Peloponnesian War, the same state issued false or plated coins (covered only in silver) to overcome the economic crisis.

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