Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Drachm Simmering and Réte Type
| Issuer | Boii of Southwestern Slovakia |
|---|---|
| Year | 100 BC - 1 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Stylized Celtic head facing right, derived from the Macedonian prototype of Alexander the Great or a Hellenistic deity, rendered in a distinctly La Tène artistic idiom. The hair is rendered as bold radiating locks or spikes fanning out from the crown, giving the effigy a characteristic Celtic abstracted quality. Facial features are summarily indicated with a prominent brow, eye, and cheek, typical of the Boian die-cutting tradition. The flan is irregular and slightly convex, with no inscription or legend in the field. The overall execution reflects the progressive barbarization of the Greek prototype by Celtic craftsmen. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A stylized Pegasus or Celtic horse galloping to the right, rendered in the abstract La Tène artistic style characteristic of the Boian coinage of southwestern Slovakia. The animal displays a prominent wing or raised foreleg above the body, with schematized musculature and a flowing tail curving beneath the hindquarters. The horse occupies the central field of the deeply concave flan, which exhibits a pronounced bowl-like incuse common to hammered Celtic drachms of this series. No inscription or legend appears in the field. The design ultimately derives from the Corinthian stater's Pegasus prototype, progressively abstracted through successive Celtic die generations. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Boii who struck this type were not the Bohemian Boii familiar from Caesar's accounts but a related group occupying the Danubian basin, pushed progressively eastward by the late second century BC. The Simmering and Réte classification groups coins found concentrating around those findspot regions, a typological convenience that reflects genuine geographic clustering in the archaeological record rather than a minting distinction.
By the mid-first century BC, Boian political power in the region had collapsed under pressure from the Dacians under Burebista, who effectively destroyed the confederation around 60–50 BC. Coins of this type found after that horizon were likely buried hoards, not active currency.