Unique ID: 73
Lysimachus was a bodyguard to Alexander III, and became ruler of Thrace after Alexander’s death. He eventually became king of most of Asia Minor. One of the coins he minted, his gold stater, became the standard currency in the Black Sea area, and was still being minted by other kings over a century after his death. His staters featured the head of Alexander on the obverse, and Athena Nikephoros (Athena carrying victory) on the reverse.
The Celtic imitations became increasingly abstract. Alexander’s head became cartoon like, with the hair becoming wild (as on this coin), and then turning into a row of birds. The reverse became equally cartoonish. Note that although these coins are almost certainly common (101 to 200 coins), the 94 coins that I know of are all different, and are individually unique.
Brendan Mac Gonagle suggests that their geographical distribution “strongly indicates a connection to the Celto-Scythian Bastarnae tribes” who were close allies of the Pontic king Mithridates VI. Mithridates minted posthumous copies of Lysimachus staters, and when he was defeated by Rome in 66 BC, production of those staters stopped and the local tribes started minting their own to fill the vacuum. It is thought they continued until the early first century AD.
Celtic imitations of Lysimachus staters have been found in many places, including northern Italy, the Balkans, and the Baltic, leading to some debate about where they were actually minted. Originally thought to come from Transylvania, it is now thought that they came from Colchis in modern day Georgia. This doesn’t quite tie in with Mac Gonagle’s suggestion that it was the Bastarnae who minted them, as they seem to have lived on the opposite side of the Black Sea. It’s possible that they were minted by multiple tribes (or smaller authorities) all around the Black Sea area, and Colchis is just one area where they were produced.
