Cze,
Thanks again re the Waldalgesheim book.
I don't know of any Celtic overstrike on a Greek coin. Simone Scheers
in _Traite de numismatique Celtique - II La Gaule Belgique_ reports on
the S.G. of two exceedingly rare gold coins from Ambiani territory
that are faithful copies of gold coins from Tarentum in Calabria.
These might be connected to the Italian campaign of the Epeirote king
Alexander the Molossian in 334-330 BC. I suppose mercenaries could
have come from Ambiani Territory, and when they returned home with
their gold, these coins would have had high status value, inspiring
the copies. S.G.'s are 18.93 and 18.40 giving an estimated au
percentage of 95 to 98%. I don't know of any finer Celtic coins. The
earliest coins found in Treviri territory are as much as 83%, but as I
said earlier, this fell rather quickly in the case of the Armorican
types from about 78% to about 27%.
The influence of Greek art on earlier Celtic coins is interesting,
They started out with copies with varying degrees of success, the
Tarentum copies are amazing, but many of the copies of Phillip II are
rather poor. The defining factor seems to be the ability and status of
the die engravers. Among the lesser informed numismatists is the idea
that the Celts could only make "crude copies" of classical art, and so
that anything that is a bad copy gets called "Celtic". This annoys me,
as many coins from Thrace and other peripheral areas are then called
Celtic.
When I recatalogued the Wallace collection, there were some very crude
coins from Chalcis that could, by the same definition, be called
Celtic! Of course, they were Greek, and most certainly from Euboia,
but knowing this, some numismatists still look at them as very late.
There are later coins from that city that are better style. The crude
versions showed Hera with a single drop earring, while later coins
show her with a triple drop earring.
This attitude that things start out in fine style and then degenerate
is difficult to budge. It really depends on the status of the task and
the talents of those engaged in the industry. The Celts seemed most of
the time to make coins that looked like coins, and the model that they
had was that of the classical world. They could have accomplished
beautiful abstract designs, but chose not to, giving us instead a
wonderful synthesis that has the added benefit to us of providing more
than just a glimpse of their religious beliefs.
So I have to agree with you, they were not impressed by classical art.
When it was copied on their coins it was done so that the object would
be understood as a coin. As they got better at die engraving, they
managed to bring their own influence to the product while still
maintaining its identity.
Bracelets in threes is also interesting, it reminds me of the
mismatched pairs of bracelets from the late Hallstatt. The drive for
originality appears to be later, but perhaps there might also be
regional foci as well.
There was a lot of recycling: the Coriosolite coins from Jersey were
en route to Hengistbury for recycling when their owners were stopped
by the Romans. I date these hoards much later than anyone else does -
as late as 10 AD. I tie them into the destruction of Alet and the
final devaluation of the Durotriges coinage around Hengistbury, to the
shift in Roman trade from South of the Thames to the North and the
rise of the Trinovantian confederation.
Mark Hall (hello Mark) mentions Peter Northover's analyses (BAR
British 222). I disagree with Peter on one point, and that is that
there is such a thing as a "typical" native gold alloy. I live about a
half day's drive from gold fields on the other side of the Rockies,
and placer gold can vary in its composition from one creek to another
even within the same general area. Peter views the coinage as being a
three part alloy au - ag - cu and says that the Celts added both ag
and cu to native gold. I built a database that showed that (with
British L anyway) the types would cluster much better by the increase
in cu alone, than by the decrease in au, which is what we might think
that they were going for.
Later, in the time of Cunobelin when they had an au/ag alloy that was
very high in au they did try to add enough cu to bring it down to
their standard, but they underestimated the amount needed. This was in
a time when the range of gold purity was much more narrow than it was
with British L, but from the same region.
Peter was going to analyze some very base Norfolk wolf staters for me,
but he didn't have time, and then I ended up selling them to Chris
Rudd when I was trying to raise a few dollars. As my fortunes have
improved, I will try and get some more to analyze. These were much
baser than is published, apparently billon down to copper with little
or no gold content. Similar in many respects to the later Durotriges
coins. I suspect that these were minted by the makers of the latest
Snettisham hoard of very base torcs, and shared the same composition.
Again, I date these very late, but with less certainty.
Recycled darics was a surprise! I wonder what route they took?
Cheers,
John
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