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Tetradrachm Kapostal Type
| Issuer | Hercuniates |
|---|---|
| Year | 200 BC - 1 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 24 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Stylised equestrian figure moving to left, the rider wearing a crested helmet, rendered in the highly abstracted Celtic manner with the horse and rider reduced to bold, curvilinear forms. A crescent symbol appears before the horse's head, serving as a typical Celtic decorative or apotropaic device. Beneath the horse, a horizontal figure-of-eight motif is visible, a characteristic secondary symbol of this Kapostal type. The design ultimately derives from the Macedonian royal coinage of Philip II but has been thoroughly transformed through successive Celtic reinterpretation. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Hercuniates were a Celtic people settled in the region of Pannonia, roughly corresponding to modern western Hungary, whose coinage drew heavily from Macedonian prototypes before evolving into increasingly abstracted local forms. The Kapostal type represents one of the later stages of that stylistic drift — the original Macedonian imagery progressively geometricized over generations of copying until the forms bear only structural memory of their source. This process was not degradation but deliberate local adaptation, the designs serving as identity markers within a tribal monetary network rather than as faithful reproductions.