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1/2 Stater - Lysimachos Kolchis imitation
| Issuer | Bastarnae Celto-Scythians |
|---|---|
| Year | 100 BC - 1 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1/2 Stater = 10 Drachm |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Highly stylized and barbarized effigy of the deified Alexander the Great facing right, derived from the Lysimachos stater prototype. The head is rendered in a bold Celtic-Scythian artistic idiom, with schematized curvilinear hair depicted as a series of pellets and comma-shaped locks arranged around the crown and nape. A diadem, reduced to a geometric angular band, encircles the head above the brow. The facial features — eye, nose, and chin — are rendered in a pronounced, abstracted manner characteristic of Celto-Scythian die engraving. The flan is irregular and slightly ragged at the edges, consistent with the hand-struck hammered technique employed by steppe and northern Black Sea region workshops. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Bastarnae occupied a contested zone between the Celtic and Iranian worlds, and their coin production reflects exactly that instability — borrowing prestige imagery from Lysimachos of Thrace, a king dead for two centuries by the time these pieces were struck. This type belongs to a broad class of Hellenistic imitative coinage produced across the northern Pontic steppe and Kolchian periphery, where Greek prototypes carried transactional weight even when the issuing authority behind them had long since collapsed.
The century-long date range assigned to this issue reflects genuine scholarly uncertainty about Bastarnae chronology rather than any minting continuity.