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Tetradrachm Kugelwange Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 300 BC - 201 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A horse prancing vigorously to the left, rendered in the distinctive abstracted Celtic artistic style with a prominently globular, swollen body characteristic of the Kugelwange series. A pellet-in-annulet symbol occupies the upper field above the horse. Additional pellets and small abstract devices are scattered in the lower field beneath the horse. The mane is suggested by a curved row of pellets arching over the horse's back, and a spiral or crescent motif appears in the upper right field. The overall composition reflects the progressive Celtic transformation of the Philip II Macedonian tetradrachm prototype. |
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| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (300 BC - 201 BC) |
| Additional information |
The Kugelwange — literally "ball cheek" — designation refers to the distinctive bulging facial treatment that emerged as Celtic die-cutters progressively abstracted their Macedonian prototype over successive generations of copying. This is not decline; it is deliberate stylization, a visual language increasingly detached from its source. The precise issuing group remains unattributed, somewhere in the arc of territory spanning the middle Danube basin, where multiple Celtic tribes operated parallel mint traditions with no centralizing authority.
Kostial 464 and Göbl's plate reference place this squarely within a well-documented typological sequence, though individual die attribution at this level of the series remains difficult.