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Tetradrachm Philip III Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 300 BC - 201 BC |
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| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Highly stylised rendering of Zeus Aëtophoros enthroned to the left, the deity's body reduced to an angular, abstracted form consistent with Eastern Celtic artistic conventions derived from the Macedonian prototype of Philip II and Philip III. The god's outstretched right hand proffers an eagle, while the left hand grasps a long sceptre; the throne is rendered schematically beneath the figure. A crescent or curved symbol appears in the upper left field, and a series of linear marks occupies the right field, both likely derived from degraded Greek legend elements. The overall composition reflects advanced Celticisation of the original Macedonian reverse type. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Philip III of Macedon — half-brother to Alexander the Great, intellectually disabled, and installed as a puppet king by the Macedonian army in 323 BC — died by assassination in 317 BC, yet his coinage circulated and was copied across the Celtic world for well over a century after his death. These eastern Celtic imitations spread through a process of stylistic drift: each generation of dies copied the previous generation's coins rather than the originals, producing progressively more abstract results that retain little of the Macedonian prototype beyond the basic compositional structure.
The attribution to "uncertain eastern European Celts" reflects genuine scholarly disagreement — the production zone likely spans the middle Danube basin, but die studies have not resolved a more precise origin.