Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Tetradrachm Thasos Type
| Issuer | Uncertain Eastern European Celts |
|---|---|
| Year | 200 BC - 1 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Heavily Celticised bearded head of Dionysos facing right, adorned with an ivy wreath rendered in a schematic, abstract style characteristic of late Celtic die-cutting. The facial features are boldly stylised, with the beard depicted as a series of deeply incised parallel strokes and the wreath reduced to schematic pellets and leaf forms. Vestiges of the original Thasian prototype lettering appear in the field as degenerate symbols, transformed into abstract geometric motifs by Celtic engravers. The overall execution reflects a high degree of artistic abstraction, departing significantly from the Hellenistic model while retaining the fundamental iconographic composition. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (200 BC - 1 BC) |
| Additional information |
The Thasian tetradrachm became the dominant trade coin across the middle Danube basin by the second century BC, and Celtic tribes in Thrace and Macedonia copied it so prolifically that the imitations eventually outnumbered the Thasian originals in circulation. This piece belongs to that sprawling tradition of Celtic "barbarous" coinage — derivative in origin but genuinely independent in execution, struck by groups whose identities remain unresolved despite decades of hoard analysis.
Attribution to a specific tribe is impossible without a secure hoard provenance. The Kostial and Castelin references place it within a broad typological family rather than a precise issuing authority.