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Lot 1. Eastern Celts AR Tetradrachm

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An early Galatian issue?
Eastern Celts AR Tetradrachm

Time left:
Bidding closed (Sunday, June 26th, 19:00:30 CEST)
Current time: Saturday, November 23rd, 22:04:07 CET

Price realised: CHF 480.00 (3 bids)
Approx. EUR 515.61 / USD 537.17 / GBP 428.74

High bidder: Bidder 1

eAuction #49, Lot 1. Estimate: CHF 500.00

Eastern Celts, Northern Greece or Asia Minor (?). Imitating Antigonos II Gonatas (277/6-239 BC), but in the type of Alexander III (336-323 BC). AR Tetradrachm (25 mm, 15.33 g), early to mid 3rd Century BC.
Obv. Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress.
Rev. ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, Zeus seated left on backless throne, holding long scepter with his left hand and eagle in his right; to left, grape.
Pink -. Lanz -. Cf. Price 589 for prototype.

Very rare, possibly unpublished. Nicely toned and good very fine.

From the D.A.K. Collection.

This is a particularly interesting coin: It imitates Price 589, an issue of Antigonos II Gonatas, the Macedonian king who defeated a huge army of Celtic invaders near Lysimacheia in 277 BC and sent the survivors to Asia Minor, where Nikomedes of Bithynia hired them as mercenaries. These Celts were subsequently settled in Central Asia Minor in a region that was later named Galatia after them. Could this coin have been struck by the Celts / Galatians during their migration through Northern Greece and Asia Minor?



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