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Author Topic: A Parliament of Owls  (Read 53602 times)

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Offline Enodia

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A Parliament of Owls
« on: September 09, 2010, 04:43:25 pm »
with so much discussion recently about coins with owls i thought it might be fun to collect them all in one place. there certainly are quite a few types out there.

i'll start with my own humble contribution, but i know you guys have some beautiful owls in your collections, so let's see 'um!

Soloi, Cilicia - 3rd-2nd Century BC, AE20.
Head of Athena right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet.
Owl standing right, head facing.

Offline rover1.3

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2010, 05:09:44 pm »
I will post the reverse of one of my coins, 'cause I am really inspired by the 'stupid' charm some 4th century owls has to offer.

Look at this one below.

I feel sympathy for those cute, stupid looking birds. They need our help ;D. Joe has got a new bunch of these here https://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=66&pos=11
I feel envy 'cause many of them are a bit more foolish looking than mine.




Offline mihali84

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2010, 05:54:44 pm »
Nice Owls Peter and rover1.3, i have to agree that though not the most artistic rendering, there is a certain charm to the 4th century Owls.  I can't wait to have one for myself.

Here's an Owl from my collection, one that i am very proud to own as i never thought i could afford one without a test cut going through the Owl's head or body.

I am currently looking for a particular Salamis mint Ptolemy VI Tet that has a nice little Owl on the reverse.  I have only seen a couple examples, one sold here on Forum a while back, but hard to find otherwise.
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Offline Minos

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2010, 08:03:57 pm »
This thread will soon house the parliament of Athens if no one else provides other types ;D






Offline ecoli

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #4 on: September 10, 2010, 01:05:22 pm »



Offline rover1.3

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2010, 02:11:55 pm »
We need some volunteers to clean the chicken pen.  ;D I offer myself.

Offline cicerokid

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2010, 03:29:43 pm »

Only Athenian birds in my avery


Asklepios New Style c 135 BC

Quiver & Bow New style c 109 BC

Mass Classic Owl c 450- 404 BC

Twit Twoo!


Cicerokid
Timeo Danaos afferentem coronas

Offline Enodia

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #7 on: September 10, 2010, 04:26:10 pm »
yep, i knew we had some beautiful owls here.
rover is correct i think, in that the intermediate owls have a certain 'cartoonish' charm that is hard to resist.
Mihali, that is one spectacular bird!
Minos, your New Style looks like it has carnelians set into the eyes. this one and cicerokids first image are both realy cool.
and i'm glad ecoli has finally introduced an often overlooked Magna Graecian type.

and speaking of which, the only other owl i have is a small one from this Tarantine didrachm of the 3rd century...


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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2010, 05:08:38 pm »
My Egyptian owl....

Lloyd Taylor

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2010, 05:16:51 pm »
and my unfortunately faceless (softly struck) Bactrian owl....

Offline arizonarobin

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2010, 09:03:36 pm »
I don't have any silver owls but I do have this little Ae-

Head of Antiochus VIII, with ray diademed to right
Owl on recumbant amphora

Offline casata137ec

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2010, 10:03:13 pm »
I, too, have found that I was lacking in owl's! In fact, other than a worn bronze, I didnt have one coin with an owl on it! Didn't being the key word...  ;) 

This guy is not yet in hand, and the pic is the dealers, but I am really looking forward to it! (and getting a freakin size and weight, sheesh, some dealers!) Anyway, I bought it as an uncleaned philisto imitation of an athenian owl. I'll post better pics when I recieve it! :)

Chris

PS An imitation owl fits more in with my freak show collection anyway! to heck with a pretty one! lol
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Offline rover1.3

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #12 on: September 11, 2010, 05:16:12 am »
Anyway, I bought it as an uncleaned philisto imitation of an athenian owl. I'll post better pics when I recieve it! :)

Is the coin above the worn bronze you say you have?
I wasn't informed for the existence of  Philisto owl imitations on bronze.At least for the Gaza mint. I only knew of the silver coins,drachms,fourrée drachms and those frequently squared flan obols, and obol fractions. Am i missing something? What about the obverse?

Offline casata137ec

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #13 on: September 11, 2010, 11:02:54 am »
lol...I don't remember saying bronze!  ;D No, it's suppose to be AR. If you look closely, there is shiny silver showing through at the 12oclock and toned showing through around the 7oclock. :)

Chris

PS I didnt show the ob due to crapped up dealer pics, but here it is...I will wait until it is in hand to decide on whether or not to clean.
C.

PPS - sorry for junking up this nice thread with my crappy owl!
c.

Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto - Missouri 1822

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Offline rover1.3

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #14 on: September 11, 2010, 02:48:45 pm »
I, too, have found that I was lacking in owl's! In fact, other than a worn bronze, I didnt have one coin with an owl on it!

I thought that this one on the photo was the worn bronze you said you have.  :)


Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #15 on: September 11, 2010, 03:27:33 pm »
This is the only half-decent wol I have, a 7mm half-obol from Gaza.
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Offline Enodia

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #16 on: September 11, 2010, 04:01:17 pm »
PPS - sorry for junking up this nice thread with my crappy owl!
c.

not at all Chris, we wanna see these too. part of the reason i posted this was to see the variation of styles, and your coin moves that idea right along.

what i think i'm starting to see is a variation between the classical western owls and the newer and/or eastern owls (other than the imitations), and i'm wondering if we are actually seeing a variety of species.

the chart below comes from this site...
http://www.greeceathensaegeaninfo.com/a-eco-tourism/birds-owls-types.jpg

form this i think we can see the similarities between the squat eastern owls (ie; my Soloi and Robin's Antiochus) and the 'new style' tets of Athens, which look to me to be distinctly different from the taller owls of the classical Athenian tets. perhaps these eastern owls are the Athena Owls from the chart, but i'm not sure i can identify the classical type.

or maybe this entire train of thought is skewed? chime in folks!

~ Peter

Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #17 on: September 11, 2010, 04:10:23 pm »
Drawn like that, Athena's owl looks very much like the Little Owl, though doubtless there are other similar species.
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Offline rover1.3

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #18 on: September 11, 2010, 04:22:10 pm »
The Little Owl (Athene noctua) is the most ordinary owl type live in Athens. For that reason, I guess that this is the owl depicted on Athenian coinage.

Offline Enodia

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #19 on: September 11, 2010, 04:36:35 pm »
cute picture!

so rover, are you saying that they are all the same species? that just the artistic rendering is different? this is certainly a possibilty i had considered, and like i suggested above, perhaps i'm just reading too much into this.

also, i noticed the owl in your avatar has horns, but i don't see that in any of the coins. i admit that the horned owl looked like the most likely candidate for the classical tets, except for the horns.

~ Peter


Offline rover1.3

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #20 on: September 11, 2010, 05:37:07 pm »
cute picture!

so rover, are you saying that they are all the same species? that just the artistic rendering is different? this is certainly a possibilty i had considered, and like i suggested above, perhaps i'm just reading too much into this.

also, i noticed the owl in your avatar has horns, but i don't see that in any of the coins. i admit that the horned owl looked like the most likely candidate for the classical tets, except for the horns.

~ Peter



Who knows? Maybe you are right. I guess we need an ornithologist/numismatist here to answer this.
About the horned owl on the avatar, I thought that those horns was the 'artistic extra', something like the signature of the artist made this.
Now I see that the 'horned' owl is an existing owl type..

Offline Jochen

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #21 on: September 11, 2010, 06:35:14 pm »
I think it is the idea of an owl in the Platonic Sense.

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Offline hannibal2

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #22 on: September 12, 2010, 04:20:52 am »
Perhaps this Parliament is the opportune place to ask a question.

I seek an answer, from some 'wise owl'. Why does this owl, on this borrowed picture below, carry the tools of Osiris, the  flail and and scepter ( or  reaping hook?). Is it symbolic of a guardian of the grain by controlling mice?

tks and regards

cr

 



Offline SRukke

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #23 on: September 12, 2010, 04:39:13 am »
The Domitian may not count but I threw it in anyway. I think the Calciatti is my favorite, it's certainly the rarest of my owls.

Offline cicerokid

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Re: A Parliament of Owls
« Reply #24 on: September 12, 2010, 05:36:26 am »

Yes, of course the Domitian counts.

I guess since Minerva is the roman Athena then the Owl is her attribute too, and I got 2 of these types, one of which is in my 12 Caesars gallery.

I had completely forgot about it and it is not the best but I did buy it for the Owl
and the "skiff" (?) both are standing on.


Cicerokid

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