Obverse: Head of Young Dionysus Facing Right,
Crowned with Ivy Wreath
Reverse: Herakles Standing to the Left, Holding a
Club, Lion Skin Hanging Over His Arm
When we speak today of 'Celts', we mean people
who live on the very western edges of Europe, in
Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Scotland and Brittany.
The word comes from Keltoi, the name which the
Greek authors of the 5th century B.C. and later
gave the native people of Western Europe from
Spain to Czechoslovakia. The Celts also spread
into Britain, Northern Italy, Germany, and parts of
Asian Turkey. They were known to the Romans
as the Gauls, but would have thought of
themselves not as one people, but as different
tribes. Celtic tribes at different times were
Rome's enemies, allies and, once conquered, the
soldiers, farmers and craftsmen of much of its
empire. This tetradrachm is a close match to the
original type from Thasos unlike many of the
Celtic copies that bear little resemblance to the
model.
How many hands have touched a coin in your
pocket or purse? What eras and lands have the
coin traversed on its journey into our
possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of
who might have touched the coin before us, or
where the coin will venture to after it leaves our
hands. More than money, coins are a symbol of
the state that struck them, of a specific time and
location, whether contemporary currencies or
artifacts of a long forgotten empire. This
stunning hand-struck coin reveals an expertise
of craftsmanship and intricate sculptural detail
that is often lacking in contemporary machine-
made currencies.
