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Tetradrachm Sattelkopfpferd Type
| Issuer | Dacians of Muntenia |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Drachm |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| 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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| Obverse description | Highly stylized, abstract rendering of the head of Zeus facing right, derived from Macedonian prototype coinage. The facial features are reduced to bold, schematic elements: a prominent rounded cranium, a sweeping curved nose-to-chin profile, and a large circular eye rendered as a pelleted motif. Radiating linear strokes to the left of the head represent a stylized laurel wreath or hair, characteristic of the late Celtic-Dacian imitative tradition. The field is plain, with no legend or inscription. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Sattelkopfpferd ("saddle-head horse") group represents one of the final stages in the long degeneration of Macedonian tetradrachm types as they were copied, recopied, and abstracted by Celtic and Dacian workshops in the Carpathian basin. By the time Muntenian Dacian moneyers were producing this type, the prototypes had passed through so many generational removes from their Macedonian originals that the iconographic connection was essentially lost to the die-cutters themselves. What survived was a local visual vocabulary, not imitation.
The specific die references across Kostial, Pink, and Preda reflect decades of scholarly effort to untangle overlapping regional series — attribution to Muntenia rather than neighboring Transylvanian or Oltenian groups rests primarily on findspot concentration data.