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Didrachm Sattelkopfpferd Type of Virteju-Bucuresti
| Issuer | Dacians of Muntenia |
|---|---|
| Year | 300 BC - 101 BC |
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| Value | Didrachm (2) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Highly stylized and abstracted head derived from a Macedonian or Hellenistic prototype, rendered in the Celtic-Dacian artistic tradition. The helmet or hair mass is indicated by broad, sweeping incuse lines extending across the upper field, with a crest or plume suggested by serrated relief ridges at the apex. Facial features are reduced to schematic curved lines, with two prominent pellets in the right field likely representing the eye and a decorative element. The overall composition displays the characteristic degeneration from the original Greek prototype, typical of late La Tène Celtic coinage in the Danubian region. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Highly schematized horse in the so-called Sattelkopfpferd (saddle-head horse) style, represented by abstracted curved and linear elements rather than a naturalistic rendering. The body of the horse is reduced to a large rounded mass in the center of the field, with limbs indicated by short angular strokes. Multiple pellets are scattered around the field in irregular groupings, a hallmark of Dacian-Muntenian coinage of this type series. Linear elements at the periphery, including curved lines and a small symbol in the lower left, reflect the artistic conventions of the Virteju-Bucuresti type. The flan is broad and irregularly shaped, with a concave reverse surface characteristic of hammered Celtic silver issues. |
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| Additional information |
The Virteju-Bucuresti type belongs to a cluster of Dacian imitative didrachms derived ultimately from Macedonian prototypes, progressively abstracted through generations of local copying until the original forms became nearly unrecognizable. The "Sattelkopfpferd" — saddle-head horse — designation is a German typological label coined by researchers working through Central European Celtic and Dacian numismatic series, reflecting the distinctive deformation of the horse's neck into a geometric arch across this variant group.
Muntenia, the southern plain between the Carpathians and the Danube, sat directly in the path of repeated migrations and military pressures, and the coin series from this region show corresponding instability in die cutting and weight standards across the two-century production span.