These ancient coins are amazing. The pictured silver (AR) tetradrachm comes from Athens, Greece and dates around 393 to 350 BC. To hold something identifiable in your hand from that long ago is really quite astounding. Yet ancient coin collectors do it all the time!

The owl and AOE inscription quickly identify Abdullatif's coin as Athenian. If you do a Google image search on 'coin from Athens' you will see hundreds of examples.

Our picture comes from Munzhandlung Ritter GmbH in Dusseldorf, Germany. Ritter's coin is in great shape and is currently selling for over $1000 US dollars on the VCoins.com web site. If Ritter or another reputable coin dealer were to buy such a coin from you, he or she would pay roughly one-half the retail price, perhaps more if the coin is in excellent condition.

Note the symbol in Athena's cheek is probably a countermark, added after minting.

It is absolutely critical for novices to ancient collecting purchase coins from well-known, fully reputable dealers. Counterfeits abound in the ancient coin market, and counterfeits are worth zero. Our favorite web site for anti-counterfeit investigation is ForumAncientCoins.com.

CoinQuest thanks Munzhandlung Ritter GmbH for use of their coin photo.