The Bastarnae occupied the lower Danube region from roughly the third century BC, serving as mercenaries for Macedonian kings and later Mithridates VI of Pontus — which almost certainly explains the prolonged imitation of Lysimachean types in their coinage. Lysimachos had been dead for over a century before these pieces were struck, but his coin types carried weight as recognized trade currency across the Black Sea world long after his kingdom dissolved.
The Kolchis connection points toward the northeastern Black Sea trade network rather than a Macedonian source prototype.
The Bastarnae occupied the lower Danube region from roughly the third century BC, serving as mercenaries for Macedonian kings and later Mithridates VI of Pontus — which almost certainly explains the prolonged imitation of Lysimachean types in their coinage. Lysimachos had been dead for over a century before these pieces were struck, but his coin types carried weight as recognized trade currency across the Black Sea world long after his kingdom dissolved.
The Kolchis connection points toward the northeastern Black Sea trade network rather than a Macedonian source prototype.