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Tetradrachm Kugelwange Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 300 BC - 201 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Tetradrachm (4) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| 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 highly stylised Celtic horse prancing to the left, its body rendered with characteristic Celtic abstraction: the torso formed by a large, smooth, globular mass, with elongated curved neck and schematised limbs indicated by sweeping incised lines. Scattered pellets are distributed across the field, evoking the disintegrated chariot elements of the Macedonian prototype. A cross motif appears below the horse's body, with an additional pellet positioned beneath the tail. The composition is anepigraphic, filling the irregular flan without border or exergual line. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The "Kugelwange" — literally "ball cheek" — designation refers to a specific stylistic degeneration in Celtic coinage as die-cutters working far from Mediterranean prototypes progressively abstracted the original Macedonian tetradrachm types of Philip II. What began as an attempt to replicate a prestige coinage became, over generations, something entirely Celtic: the facial anatomy dissolved into geometric nodes, the cheek rendered as a distinct raised sphere. Attribution to a specific tribe remains impossible; these circulated across a broad arc of the middle Danube region where Celtic groups overlapped without leaving documentary records.