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Tetradrachm Thasos Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 200 BC - 1 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | Stylised figure of Herakles standing to the left, rendered in a highly abstract Celtic manner derived from the Thasian tetradrachm prototype. The hero holds a club in his right hand and drapes a lion's skin over his left arm, though both attributes are reduced to schematic forms. The surrounding legend, originally reading HRAKLEOU SWTHROS THASIWN on the Thasian prototype, has been degenerated into a series of pellets and dashes distributed to the right, left, and below the figure. A distinctive monogram composed of five pellets arranged in a quincunx pattern appears in the inner left field. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Thasian tetradrachm became the dominant trade coin across the central Balkans from roughly the late third century BC onward, and Celtic tribes in Thrace and the middle Danube region began producing imitations almost immediately after the type gained regional dominance. These are not crude copies — early examples track the Thasian prototype closely, and the progressive stylization seen across the series reflects generations of die-cutters working from coins rather than from the original, each step removing the image further from its source.
Göbl's classification of the Celtic Thasian imitations into distinct die classes allows reasonably precise attribution within what would otherwise be an undifferentiated mass of similar coins. Class II of plate 46 indicates a mid-to-late phase of the series, when abstraction of the prototype had already advanced considerably.