😍🦉 The Zoo Master: Athena's Owl 😍🦉

As I have mentioned a couple of times in the past, I love animal themed coins! Of course I prefer them when they are on silver...But since I usually go for close to spot priced pieces, I don't have much saying on their design. Beggars can't be choosers after all 🤫😂

As a result, I don't have many silver coins with animals. But coin collecting isn't just for the investing hussle, it can be fun and educational too. And with that in mind, I recently started building a world coin collection of animal themed coins. My very own little zoo if you like 😂 And other than fun, it's super cheap to build since these are just regular coins that often end up gifted away or given for scrap!

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Anyways, enough with the intro. Let's get on with the first coin on the series. This is probably my favorite one and is an animal I have mentioned a couple of times in the past due to owning a bunch of silver coins from Niue islands with an almost identical design! 🎉

Let's see it:

So, here we have a 1 Drachma coin from 1973, depicting Athena's owl. In Greek mythology, Athena's owl is often associated with the goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

The species depicted is a little owl (Athene noctua) and since the ancient Greeks it has come to be a symbol of wisdom, foresight, and knowledge in the western world.

source

Back in ancient Greece, the owl would accompany Athena, perching on her shoulder or flying alongside her. In coins, it first appeared the Greek tetradrachm (5th-century b.C.):

source

As for the actual coin in my hands, it's a small standard circulation coin made of Nickel brass (79% Copper, 20% Zinc, 1% Nickel) with a weight of 4 g.

On the other side we have another animal, although this one is a mythical one and one you have probably heard off. The phoenix, the bird that rises from its ashes!

As a sidenote that won't probably interest many of you, the phoenix was a symbol that was heavily used by the military junta of Greece and appears in most, if not all, coins minted during those times.

Pricewise, this is a super cheap coin. You can probably get one for 10 cents or a UNC for 2 $.

Here are some more quick coin specs from Numista 👇

Issuer: Greece
Period: Regime of the Colonels (1967-1974)
Type: Standard circulation coin
Year: 1973
Value: 1 Drachma (1 GRD)
Currency: Third modern drachma (1954-2001)
Composition: Nickel brass (79% Copper, 20% Zinc, 1% Nickel)
Weight: 4 g
Diameter: 21 mm
Thickness: 1.7 mm
Shape: Round

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Ok, friends. This concludes my first post on the series! See you soon with more worthless yet beautiful animal themed coins 💕

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