Many years ago, when I was a kid pushing Lincoln pennies into Whitman folders, my parents bought me a catalog of World Coins with an Athenian tetradrachm on the cover. I certainly didn't know then that they existed outside of museums. Tetradrachms aren't inexpensive, but some of the smaller denominations can be had at very reasonable prices, and there is something special about holding a coin that might have been once bought Socrates his breakfast.
Remember, Socrates was a modest fellow who probably handled far more obols than he did tetradrachms.
| Denomination | weight | notes | |
| Tetradrachm | 17.2g | archaic "almond-eye" |  |
| Tetradrachm | 17.2g | transitional eye-in-profile |  |
modern fake | 8.6g | Purchased as an official end-of-the-Peloponnesian-war fouree, |  |
| Tetradrachm | 16.7g | new style |  |
| Drachm | 3.1g | On drachms, you can often see the helmet crest |  |
| Obol | 0.65g | impractical |  |
| Hemiobol | 0.32g | very impractical! |  |
| Æ16 | 3.73g | not an owl, granted, but a far more practical way to make small change! |  |
| Æ21 | 5.78g | again, not an owl, this from the time of Gallienus |  |