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Tetradrachm Lysimachoskopf Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 200 BC - 1 BC |
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| Value | Tetradrachm (4) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Nude male rider on horseback prancing to the left, rendered in a stylized Celtic manner derived from the seated Zeus prototype of the Macedonian tetradrachm tradition. The horse is depicted with schematized musculature, elongated limbs reduced to angular strokes, and a striated mane. The rider raises one arm, with a disembodied head or mask motif visible above and behind the horse, a hallmark feature of this Eastern Celtic Lysimachos-derived series. A small oval or pellet device appears beneath the horse in the lower field. The overall composition reflects the progressive abstraction characteristic of late Celtic coinage in the Carpathian-Danubian region. |
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| Edge | Plain, irregular |
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| Additional information |
Celtic imitations of the Lysimachos tetradrachm circulated across the Danube basin and Carpathian regions for well over a century, progressively abstracting the original Macedonian prototype into forms that bear only skeletal resemblance to their source. This particular type sits within a broad classificatory cluster — Göbl's Pl. 24 series — representing workshops that were likely operating in what is now eastern Hungary, Slovakia, or Romania, though attribution remains genuinely contested among specialists.
The dating range reflects the problem rather than resolves it: these coins were struck across multiple generations, probably by tribal groups with no continuous institutional mint. Stylistic drift within a single die sequence can be dramatic.