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Drachm Damastion Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 400 BC - 301 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 21 mm |
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| Obverse description | Celticised male head facing right, rendered in the characteristic abstract Celtic artistic idiom derived from the prototype of Damastion coinage. The hair is depicted as a series of bold, schematised strands and ridges sweeping back from the brow, with a prominent ear indicated by a circular pellet. The neck and lower drapery are suggested in a stylised, geometric manner, reflecting the progressive barbarisation of the original Greek prototype. |
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| Reverse description | Highly stylised tripod occupying the central field, its three legs terminating in prominent globular pellets, with additional pellets at the joints and along the crossbars, all rendered in the abstract Celtic manner. To the left, a schematised sword or elongated object with parallel lines. To the upper right, a smaller secondary tripod motif, and to the lower right, further globular and linear subsidiary elements. The entire design is enclosed within a beaded border, and a crescent or lunate device appears at the top of the field above the tripod. |
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| Additional information |
The Damastion type takes its name from the ancient Illyrian mining city of Damastion, whose silver coinage Celtic die-cutters appear to have copied and progressively abstracted during the fourth century BC. The precise issuing group remains unresolved — "Eastern European Celts" covers a broad swath of tribal territories across the Balkans where Greek commercial coinage penetrated before native imitation began. What started as faithful copying devolved, generation by generation, into the schematized forms characteristic of La Tène monetary practice.
The Castelin reference places this within his broader Bohemian-Danubian classification, though the type circulated well beyond any single tribal boundary.