White Whale Acquired: Not the Usual Athens

SmEagle1795

It's rare that thinking about an upcoming auction keeps me up at night for multiple days due to the excitement.

This type has always been at the top of my wantlist but I never thought I'd manage to acquire one due to its absolute rarity. It's necessary to be patient and opportunistic when you want a coin of which only two are available to private collectors (especially when one of those two is owned by a friend who won't ever sell).

If this coin were sold in a better publicized auction, I likely would have never been able to buy it. It went for roughly half of my max bid and I felt I only had a weak chance of buying it even at that level.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled. And, without further ado:

ATTICA. Athens. AV Diobol (1.43 gms), ca. 407/6 B.C.
Svoronos-pl. 15#7. Head of Athena facing right wearing crested Attic helmet adorned with palmette and olive leaves; Reverse: Two owls standing confronted, olive branch between, ethnic in exergue. Minor scuffs, though commensurate with the assigned condition.
Ex. John Whitney Walter Collection

Athens was a prolific producer of silver coinage, minting millions of owl tetradrachms. Gold, however, was much scarcer in the region and Athens only minted gold coinage when in severe crisis. This gold diobol comes from the final years of the Peloponnesian War and is one of the most important and rarest Greek coins.

Athens faced heavy losses against Sparta. Near the end of the war, they blocked Athens from accessing its silver mines, resulting in an economic emergency. After four years of being starved out, the need for funds became so dire, the authorities ordered the melting of seven of the eight massive gold statues of Nike which were standing around the Parthenon on the Acropolis.

These statues were symbols of the city’s great economic reserves making this a true moment of desperation for Athens. The gold from these statues was minted into coins and used to construct a new fleet of ships to attempt a naval retaliation. Because of their value, to protect against forgeries, the dies used to strike the coins were stored in the Parthenon treasury in an alabaster box. Further indicating the importance of their minting, the historical context of these gold coins is exceptionally well documented by the playwright Aristophanes and by the Athenian treasury records.

Unfortunately, even with the influx of funds, Athens was ultimately defeated at sea and surrendered to the Spartan general Lysander.

While many thousands of coins were minted with the volume of gold from the statues, only a very small number survive today. This coin is one of only two diobols in private hands with the four others residing in museums. Other denominations are also known but exist in similar numbers, with only one or two examples of each available to private collectors.

Swampboy

Exceptional piece!!

Congratulations on this aquisition.

MattTheRiley

Modern America has the Double Eagle, Ancient Greece had the Double Owl! Great write-up, thanks! Beautiful piece!

Zohar

Impressive!

bidask

Congratulations for tracking it down and buying it !

EVillageProwler

Congratulations on getting your white whale and getting a coin with the JWW provenance. I desperately wanted one from him that’s British or Anglo-Saxon but got shut out.

I used to own a 1796 early dollar that was in his Mr. 1796 set.

EVP

Weiss

Love it when collectors approach the boundaries of what is considered worthy, cool, etc. by us average knowledgeable collectors...and then drive through it in a Mack truck with no brakes.

That's like a freaking legend in your hands.

Bob13

Totally agree with @Weiss - what an amazing history that you can describe with that coin.

Congratulations! Plus, it’s a nice coin!

Elmhurst

Thanks for the write-up. I never heard of this coin before.

TwoKopeiki

Amazing piece of history - congrats!

SaorAlba

Coingratulations are in order! Wow, that is an amazing piece.

carabonnair

Such an awesome acquisition! I'm glad it is in the hands of such an enthusiastic owner. x1000

ShadyDave

Congrats on the acquisition @SmEagle1795! May I ask why a coin this rare 2 available to the public (and 6 known total) sold for $84,000, especially when it straight graded and looks very nice? Seems kind of cheap to me...but I'm not that familiar with ancients.

SmEagle1795

@ShadyDave said:
Congrats on the acquisition @SmEagle1795! May I ask why a coin this rare 2 available to the public (and 6 known total) sold for $84,000, especially when it straight graded and looks very nice? Seems kind of cheap to me...but I'm not that familiar with ancients.

Thanks! In general, ancients are much rarer than US coins and there are many types which are represented by just a small number of examples. So, finding a unique or nearly unique coin isn't particularly difficult. That said, in many cases, the "degree" of uniqueness might be somewhat academic and the demand might not follow it (i.e. if you have a coin where three are known and only two people want one or appreciate what it is, it'll sell for melt).

Gold coinage of Athens is extremely rare and also in demand so it does carry a higher pricetag. In this scenario, I feel I was very lucky because the auction was not properly publicized: Stack's isn't nearly as prominent as it was in the '90s in ancients. $84K (+5% for dealer representation) isn't cheap by any means but it is well under what I planned to bid and what I could conceivably have ended up paying if it attracted a wider audience.

Granted, this coin isn't and won't be for sale as it is irreplaceable and I consider it a critical area of history to represent in my collection. So, the price paid isn't as important now but I'll just say that I'm overall extraordinarily happy with it and slightly shocked that I was able to cross it off my list as I feared it would always be a hole in my collection :-)

savitale

Can I ask why you chose to get representation for the auction? Clearly you are already very knowledgeable about these coins.

SmEagle1795

@savitale said:
Can I ask why you chose to get representation for the auction? Clearly you are already very knowledgeable about these coins.

I viewed the coin myself and was comfortable with it without further advice which is the normal reason for using a dealer. However, in this instance, it was a strategic move. By having them represent me, they couldn't bid on it for stock or for other customers. I later found out that two of their customers wanted it but they told them they had a prior bid. Maybe these customers still ended up bidding from someone else but it often is well worth the 5%.

EVillageProwler

@SmEagle1795 said:

@savitale said:
Can I ask why you chose to get representation for the auction? Clearly you are already very knowledgeable about these coins.

I viewed the coin myself and was comfortable with it without further advice which is the normal reason for using a dealer. However, in this instance, it was a strategic move. By having them represent me, they couldn't bid on it for stock or for other customers. I later found out that two of their customers wanted it but they told them they had a prior bid. Maybe these customers still ended up bidding from someone else but it often is well worth the 5%.

While not at the same price level, I often employ a dealer for these reasons and more. Some of the other reasons are: another pair of expert eyes, general buzz about the coin, and the logistics of getting the coin to me. Sometimes my dealer will have an excellent idea of what it will take to acquire the coin, allowing me to plan ahead.

One recent situation happened to me where my dealer contact told me exactly how much it will take to win a coin that I wanted. I misunderstood him and bid incorrectly. And lost. Oh well.

Last year I won my Alfred Londonia 1/2p in an UK auction. Prior to the auction, I had debated with my dealer what to do. In the end, he and I came up with two numbers: what we felt was a fair bid, and what we felt was a max bid above which would be wrong. He had a sense that the first number wasn't going to be enough and urged me to go with the second number. He was correct; I won the coin at my absolute max. So it worked out well for me to have employed a dealer, and the +5% was worth it. Oh, and btw, the dealer also arranged pickup, payment and shipment. Minus the stress of not knowing if I had won, it was easy peasy.

EVP

Namvet69

Did archeologists ever find any of the dies or the alabaster box? Peace Roy