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Tetradrachm Thasos Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 200 BC - 1 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Reverse description | Stylised standing figure of Herakles facing left, derived from the Thasian tetradrachm type but rendered in pronounced Celtic abstraction, the body reduced to geometric forms. The club, held in the right hand, is degenerated into a cluster of pellets, and the Nemean lion's skin draped over the left arm is similarly schematised. The reverse legend, executed in debased pseudo-Greek characters imitating the Thasian ΘΑΣΙΩΝ inscription, reads IΩVΛEO to the right of the figure, ΩZHDOΛ to the left, and Λ•ΣIΩM below; an additional M appears in the inner left field. |
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| Reverse lettering | IΩVΛEO ΩZHDOΛ Λ•ΣIΩM |
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| Additional information |
The Thasian tetradrachm became the template of choice for Celtic tribes across Thrace and the middle Danube basin after the original Thasian issues — themselves a revival of an earlier series — flooded the region through trade and mercenary payments. Celtic die-cutters didn't simply copy; they progressively abstracted the prototype across generations of imitation, each workshop drifting further from the source. By the late second century BC, the design had undergone such radical stylization that the connection to Thasos is recognizable only to a trained eye.
Attribution to a specific tribe remains contested. The Göbl class III placement narrows the typological lineage but stops short of a firm tribal assignment.