Athens Owl Tetradrachm, AU & toned (454-404 BC)

Beautiful example of the Athens tetradrachm with AU metal quality, nice toning, and a very sharp strike, with some of the helmet plumage intact

The Athenian 'owl' is one of the most iconic coins of the ancient world, and this example dates to the height of Athenian power - from the transfer of the Delian League treasury to Athens in 454 BC to the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. Minted from silver of the Laurion mines, these tetradrachms financed the Parthenon and the Athenian fleet and circulated as the dominant trade currency of the Greek world. Few coins capture Classical Greece as directly as the Athenian owl.