jahrbuch numismatik geldgeschichte - Medievalcoinage.com

More on the Prague Type 97
ved from it (weight 1.44 grams). Nos. 18-19 certainly form a separate
group (1.72 and 1.20 grams); I am not aware of derivatives from
it. I have not come across evidence in the collections where these coins
are kept (B. N. Paris, the Hague Cabinet, the Vienna Cabinet, the Hunterian
Museum, Glasgow, and a private British collection) pointing to
the original home of any of these six coins 4.
In practice, nonetheless, it is fairly safe to assume that both series of
prototypes had their home in the region between the Elbe, the Rhine
and the Alps. This is confirmed to some extent by such little information
as we have on both the origin of the types and their influence on
other Celtic coinages.
The head of Apollo with flowing hair and laurel wreath is such a
common classical type that no attempt can be made to pin down the
exact model of the prototype coins. Oddly enough, there is no such
head on Roman denarii; for a Roman model one would need to go
back to Romano-Campanian didrachms (Sydenham Nos. 4-5). But
the type is one of many used at Massalia and it was early adopted on
Celtic silver coins of Dauphine and Savoie. The principal types are
those with the legend IANVS in Italiot characters (B. N. Paris 2901-
11, weight 2.30-2.20 grams), those with the legend VOL in Roman
characters (B. N. Paris 2621-44, 2893-5, weight 2.45-2.30 grams),
and those where the horse is replaced by a chamois (B. N. Paris 2878
—92, weight 2.40-2.30 grams). The same head occurs on the silver
(and later bronze), coins of Avenio (B. N. Paris 2509-14, weight 2.40
—2.20 grams). All these are probably coins of the second century B.
C., and all are heavier than the Prague type prototypes. The likelihood
is, therefore, that we should look to the west or south west for the
origin of the head on the prototypes.
lt is eot equally easy to point to an origin for the horse on the reverse
of these coins, since on small silver coins the use of a horse is
so widely spread. The most characteristic and enduring feature is the
treatment of the raised and bent forelegs of the horse. This is seen on
many tetradrachms of Danubian origin. There are also Danubian parallels
for the severed head of no. 2, though parallels are not confined
to that region. One may suspect that many of the small silver coins of
the German area have a mixed origin, partly from the west and partly
7
4 Since this was written, I have come across four more specimens, as follows, two
of which have find-spots:
(a) Similar to nos. 14-15: Mainz, RGZM Co]lection, no. 0 25668.
(b) Similar to nos. 14-15: found at Bucher Forst, Ldkr. Uffenheim, Bavaria; Jahrbuch
des Bernischen Historischen Museums in Bern XLI/II (1961-2), 270 (a).
(c) Similar to no. 16: found at Jüchsen, Kr. Meiningen, Bez. Suhl, Flur Widderstadt;
Ausgrabungen und Funde 11, 1966, 257 no. 19.
(d) Similar to nos. 18-19: Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum.