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Tetradrachm Thasos Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 200 BC - 1 BC |
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| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Herakles standing to the left in the nude, holding a club upright in his right hand and the Nemean lion's skin draped over his left arm, closely following the iconographic scheme of the Thasian tetradrachm prototype. The figure is rendered in a somewhat stylized Celtic manner, with the musculature simplified relative to the Hellenistic original. The Greek inscription HPAKΛEOYΣ appears to the right of the figure and ΣΩTHPOΣ to the left, with ΘAΣIΩN in the lower exergual area; a monogram appears in the inner left field. The overall composition imitates the reverse type of the autonomous silver coinage of Thasos, adapted by Celtic die-cutters active in Eastern Europe. |
| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
The Thasian tetradrachm became a template for Celtic imitators across Thrace and the Danube basin after Thasos resumed striking silver around 148 BC following a Roman-imposed suspension. Celtic workshops copied the type so prolifically — and with such progressive stylistic degradation across generations of die-cutting — that distinguishing early faithful imitations from later abstractions requires close attention to fabric and flan shape rather than design legibility alone. Göbl's classification of these into discrete die classes reflects decades of effort to impose order on what was essentially decentralized, tribal production with no mint authority in any formal sense.