Catalog
Stater Charioteer facing right
| Issuer | Uncertain Gallia Celtica tribes |
|---|---|
| Year | 200 BC - 100 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | DT#3615 var. |
| Obverse description | Highly stylized and abstracted Celtic head facing left, rendered in the characteristic La Tène artistic tradition. The facial features are reduced to bold, schematic relief elements, with the hair depicted as a fan of raised ridges or tress-like strands splaying upward and to the right across the convex flan. The treatment reflects the progressive abstraction of the Macedonian prototype, typical of Gaulish coinage of the 2nd century BC. The broad, smooth field surrounding the motif is unlettered. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Charioteer driving to the right, rendered in the highly abstract Celtic idiom characteristic of Gallia Celtica coinage of the 2nd century BC. The horse and charioteer are schematically depicted, with the body, limbs, and head of the charioteer represented by a series of pellets and dots arranged in a loose figurative composition. The horse is shown in motion to the right, its form similarly dissolved into decorative elements derived from the original Macedonian stater prototype. The field is plain and unlettered, the overall design exhibiting the dynamic abstraction typical of the Armorican or central Gaulish minting tradition. |
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| Additional information |
The so-called "charioteer" staters of Gallia Celtica descend from Macedonian gold staters of Philip II, absorbed into Gaulish circulation after his campaigns brought enormous quantities of Greek coinage into northern and central Europe. Over roughly three generations, Celtic die-cutters progressively abstracted the original design until the human figure and vehicle became near-geometric — a process of deliberate artistic transformation, not degraded copying.
Attribution to a specific tribe remains unresolved. The "var." designation against DT#3615 signals a die combination or stylistic detail that doesn't align cleanly with the documented corpus, which is itself incomplete for this region and century.