Silver Unit - Athenian style

Sabaean merchants copied Athenian owl tetradrachms so faithfully that the imitations circulated alongside originals across Arabian trade routes for generations — the Athenian type had become a trusted commercial currency across the ancient Near East, and reproducing it was a commercial decision, not a cultural one. These pieces were struck to local weight standards rather than Attic, which is why they fall short of the canonical tetradrachm mass.

The Huth and CAF references document considerable die variety across the series, reflecting decentralized production over two centuries rather than any single mint event.