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| | (30) Athens, Attica (Greece) |
 | | These coins, which were not issued in large numbers and which rarely circulated outside Attica, were replaced toward the end of the sixth century B.C. by a new type of coinage, consisting primarily of tetradrachms, which became the most authoritative coinage of Classical Greece. |
 | | In contrast to the constantly changing types of the Wappenmünzen, the new coins consistently depicted Athena, the patron goddess of Athens, on the obverse and her attribute the owl, a sprig of olive, and a crescent moon on the reverse. |
 | | Athenian coinage, which began relatively early, at first consisted of coins now known by the German term Wappenmünzen or "heraldic coins," because they depicted a wide range of types once thought to be emblems of powerful Athenian families, although a number of other explanations for the different types have now been put forward. |
| www.lawrence.edu /dept/art/buerger/catalogue/030.html |
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