Obolos 4

EASTERN CELTS. Late 3rd to early 2nd century BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 23mm, 11.95 g 9), imitation of Patraos. Laureate head of Apollo to left. Rev. Armored cavalryman galloping to left, spearing fallen soldier holding Macedonian shield. Cf. Flesche 632 and Lanz 1004-1005 (but differing styles). Extremely rare and apparently unpublished. A most attractive example with beautiful old cabinet toning. Sharply struck and clear. A coin of particular style and unique as such. Extremely fine.

From the collection of a Swiss mathematician, formed in the 1980s.

The imitations of Patraos are among the earliest of all Balkan imitations of Greek coins. Specimens of this type appeared in the great Paeonian Hoard (IGCH 410), buried c. 315, and it seems very likely that they began to be produced during Patraos’s lifetime, but ceased soon afterwards. All evidence seems to indicate that the Patraos imitations, apparently issued by the Agriones living between the Strymon and the Axios in southern Bulgaria, preceded the more numerous imitations of Philip II, which began to be produced in considerable numbers by the Getae in Dacia to the north.