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History behind Celtic Philip II imitation tetradrachm

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Nathan P:
Thanks Altamura!

Nikola K:
Here is some more info:
Why the name (Kugelwange) is in German:
Karl Pink gave it the name in his catalogue - he was an Austrian I believe. English term is "ball cheek" type. The local name in Serbia/Croatia is Sremski Tip (Type A and B).

Are all of these kugelwange coins Scordisci?
These coins are attributed to Scordisci, since most of the coins were found between Sava and Danube rivers. They can also be from Amantini (client kingdom of Scordisci) or other nearby tribes, however it is not possible to distinguish them, since variations are great, there are no inscriptions and the local tribes were often copying/forging coins of their neighbors and trading. Regarding Celtic trade an interesting fact for me was that there were often finds of Eastern Celtic coins in Celtic hoards in Britain.

Other info:
This is a later phase of copying Philip II tetradrachms. The local Celts have stopped imitating Greek money and have started making it their own, which is visible by the design becoming more abstract.

Silver is of lower quality, so the corrosion is present often. The silver content varies, there are many specimens that are made from Billion, suberats are often as well.

Weight variations are much greater than in the previous phases. Weight for tetradrachm is usually between  11 i 11,6g, however there are many speciments with 10-11g, some much less. Drachms go between 1.9-2.6g. It is hard to set the tetradrachm to drachm ratio due to this and it was probably somewhere between 4-5 drachms to a tetradrachm.
Source - Popović, 1987: 48

There is also a good post on this site here:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=58513.20

Not much is known of the history of Scordisci, but it is an interesting read. My favorite quote is from Roman historian Florus:
“The cruelest of all the Thracians were the Scordisci, and to their strength was added cunning as well”

Nathan P:
Thanks so much for the information, Nikola! I'm going to include some of what you shared in my coin's description, especially the Florus quote and trade with British Celts.

Nathan

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