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Stater - Alexander III Kolchis imitation
| Issuer | Bastarnae Celto-Scythians |
|---|---|
| Year | 100 BC - 100 AD |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Stater = 20 Drachm |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Highly schematized and abstracted head facing right, rendered in a bold Celtic artistic idiom derived ultimately from the Kolchian imitations of Alexander III staters. The facial features are reduced to geometric forms, with a large central concentric-circle motif dominating the field, likely representing the eye. Four pellets arranged before the effigy serve as decorative punctuation characteristic of this barbarian series. The overall design occupies a broad, irregularly shaped flan typical of hammered barbarous staters of the Pontic steppe region. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Bastarnae occupied a contested zone between the Celtic and Scythian worlds, and their gold staters imitating Alexander III's coinage reflect a political calculation as much as an economic one — Alexandrine types carried transactional weight across the Black Sea littoral and deep into the steppe far longer than the Macedonian kingdom itself survived. The Kolchis variants in particular represent a regional strand of this imitation tradition, diverging progressively from the prototype across successive die generations until the original types become barely legible.
The Bastarnae were recorded by Roman sources as early as the Macedonian wars of the second century BC, and their coinage tradition persisted well into the early imperial period.