ATTICA. Athens. Circa 469/5-460 BC. Dekadrachm (Silver, 36 mm, 40.61 g, 1 h). Head of Athena right, with frontal eye, wearing pendant earring and pearl necklace with central pendant, and crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves and palmette. Rev. A-Θ-E Owl standing facing, wings spread; to upper left, olive sprig; all within incuse square. BMC 40. Fischer-Bossert, Decadrachm, 26a (this coin, O15/R24). HGC 4, 1585. Kraay & Hirmer 357-8. Seltman 445-52. Starr Group II.C. Zhuyuetang 31 (same reverse die). Extremely rare. Lightly toned and perfectly centered, with a nearly full crest. An impressive example of this prestigious issue, with an excellent pedigree; arguably the most famous Greek coin type of all time. Some surface roughness, otherwise, good very fine.



The famous Athenian dekadrachms, with their imposing facing owl reverses, have fascinated numismatists ever since the first example came to light in 1817. Yet the purpose of these remarkable coins remains uncertain. Their exceptionally large denomination - the highest ever struck at Athens - led early scholars such as Babelon and Head to interpret them as a special issue of the Persian Wars period. Herodotos’ account seemed to support this view: according to him, Themistokles urged the Athenians to devote the ten drachms that were to be distributed to each citizen from the revenues of the Laurion silver mines to the construction of a war fleet (Hdt. 7.144.1). It was therefore tempting to associate this passage with the extraordinary ten-drachm pieces and to reconcile numismatic and literary evidence accordingly.

Subsequent re-datings of the Athenian coinage on the basis of stylistic comparison and hoard evidence, above all the finds from Asyut (IGCH 1644) and Elmalı (CH VIII, 48), soon showed that these pieces must belong to a significantly later period. Fischer-Bossert dates them to the 460s BC and connects them either with the Battle of the Eurymedon (469 or 465 BC) or with the suppression of the Thasian revolt in 465–463/2 BC - events that would have entailed both increased expenditure for the maintenance of the fleet and the acquisition of war booty. Yet the actual purpose for which the dekadrachms were struck remains unknown; to infer special expenditure or booty coinages from their size alone is probably to press the evidence too far.

Fischer-Bossert rightly observes that the simultaneous striking of didrachms within the same series suggests that the issue as a whole was intended for circulation. The dekadrachms, therefore, can hardly have had any true medallion-like character. Even so, the structured denomination series of 10-, 4-, 2-, and 1-drachm pieces, together with fractions, did not endure; the great rarity of the dekadrachms and didrachms instead suggests that the experiment was soon abandoned, and Athens returned to its traditional coinage of tetradrachms, drachms, and fractions.

The considerable technical demands involved in striking such large silver denominations become clear from the large issues of the Thraco-Macedonian region, whose reverses are often so flat that only a few details of the types remain visible. The slightly earlier Demareteia from Syracuse and the much later dekadrachms from Akragas likewise display strikingly shallow engraving, probably owing at least in part to the technical difficulties involved in working such large flans. The Athenian dekadrachms are altogether different: very much in the manner of the tetradrachms, they are distinguished by their exceptionally high relief and deeply struck reverse. The production of such imposing large coins required not only considerable striking force, but also, presumably, particularly intense heating of the thick flans in order to soften them sufficiently for striking. It is possible that this very technical complexity - quite apart from the impracticality of such large denominations in everyday use - was one of the reasons why dekadrachm production was soon discontinued.

Only a small number of specimens survive today. In 2008, Fischer-Bossert counted around 40 known examples, although some of the pieces that appeared after 2007 were later called into question. No such doubts attach to the authenticity of the present specimen. Acquired by our consignor, a well-known industrialist, from Leu in 2000, it belongs not only to the small number of Attic dekadrachms still in private hands - arguably the most famous of all Greek coins - but also to the smaller and more select group of examples with a secure provenance, which in the case of the present coin can be traced back to the beginning of this century.