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Stater - Lysimachos Kolchis imitation
| Issuer | Bastarnae Celto-Scythians |
|---|---|
| Year | 100 BC - 100 AD |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Stylised barbarian imitation of the head of Lysimachos facing right, rendered in a degenerate Celtic artistic style. The hair is depicted as a series of large rounded pellets or bosses arranged in rows across the scalp, characteristic of late Celto-Scythian coinage. The facial features — eye, nose, and jaw — are schematically rendered but remain recognisable as a profile portrait. The neck and lower portion of the bust show further pellet decoration, with no legend or inscription in the field. |
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| Mintage | ND (100 BC - 100 AD) |
| Additional information |
The Bastarnae occupied the lower Danube region and Black Sea steppe margins — a population consistently described by ancient sources as Germanic in origin but thoroughly Scythianized in material culture. Their gold coinage borrowed the authority of Lysimachos of Thrace, whose posthumous stater types had circulated as prestige currency across the northern Pontic world for centuries after his death at Korupedion in 281 BC. Kolchis imitations of this type represent a distinct regional branch, progressively abstracted from the prototype through successive copying.
The Castelin and Arslan references together place this piece within a well-documented but numerically small corpus.