Thrace, Lower Danube Region, Geto-Dacians, Tetradrachm

Tis coin originated in the region of the lower Danube, where in ancient times Geto-Dacian tribes settled, approximately the area of modern Hungary and Rumania. It is a Celtic copy of a coin from the Greek island of Thasos.

Thanks to the wide-spread trade connections of the people of Thasos, coins from the island circulated over large areas in Antiquity. In the Thracian hinterland they were so common that the Celtic tribes living there used them as models for their own coinage.

The obverse shows a Celtic interpretation of the head of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. The reverse depicts Heracles surrounded by letter-like signs; the die-sinker supposedly could not read the Greek letters on the original coin and had to improvise.