Ancient Greece Athens Tetradracm with Athena, Owl, and Amphora 138BC

The coin that comes to mind, Larry, is a 'new style' silver tetradrachm from ancient Athens, Greece. It is new only in that, as the Roman Empire expanded, Athens found itself under Roman rule and the coin designs changed a little.

The 'gladiator' is really a helmeted version of the Greek goddess Athena, goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill (whew!). The 'eagle' is really an owl, standing on an 'urn' or amphora which is symbol of the city of Athens even to this day, as seen in the Greek 10 lepta coin from 1912.

These are rare coins and difficult to find in good condition. Here are some approximate catalog values.

worn: $120 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $400
well preserved: $800

The coin in our picture comes from two of our favorite sites for ancient coins. It is for sale on VCoins.com from an owner on ForumAncientCoins.com. CoinQuest thanks the Forum for use of their coin image. It is a beauty.
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