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!
Tetradrachm Janiform Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 300 BC - 201 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Tetradrachm (4) |
| 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 | Janiform jugate bearded heads of Zeus rendered in a highly stylized Celtic interpretation, the two facing profiles conjoined back-to-back at center. The facial features are deeply modeled with exaggerated, swirling relief characteristic of La Tène artistic convention, including prominent brow ridges, volute beard renderings, and abstracted hair locks radiating outward from the crown. Between the two heads, a central lyre-like or torque-derived motif occupies the field. The overall composition fills the flan with bold, energetic die-cutting reflecting the Celtic celator's creative adaptation of the Hellenistic Macedonian prototype. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Stylized rider on horseback advancing to right, the figure wearing a helmet adorned with a long flowing crest. A rosette appears before the horse in the field, while a branch or plant motif grows outward from a torque positioned in front of the horse's foreleg. The horse's anatomy is rendered in an abstracted La Tène style with exaggerated limb proportions and decorative pellet ornaments. The overall design derives from the Macedonian Philip II tetradrachm reverse tradition, heavily reinterpreted through Eastern Celtic artistic conventions. |
| 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 |
Celtic coinage of this class derives ultimately from the Macedonian tetradrachms of Philip II, which flooded into central and eastern Europe as mercenary pay following Celtic service in Balkan campaigns of the 4th century BC. The janiform type — two facing heads set back-to-back — represents a local Celtic reinterpretation that progressively abstracted the original Macedonian prototypes over successive generations of copying, often to the point where the monetary lineage is only recoverable through die study and typological sequencing.
Attribution to a specific tribe remains unresolved. The Kostial and Göbl references place this piece within a cluster of issues whose distribution points broadly to the middle Danube region.