Numismatic Auction #20

CENTRAL EUROPEAN CELTS: The Boii, mid-late 1st Century BC, AR hexadrachm (17.31g), Bohemia Region, Biatec, Dembski 598; Paulsen 732ff, jugate male heads right, the left wearing laurel wreath, the right helmeted, ivy leaf to right, scalloped border / BIATEC, rider on galloping hippogriff right, holding branch in right hand, scalloped border, Fine, RR, ex purchase from Auktionshaus H.D. Rauch July 9, 1970. These largest denominations of the "Biatec " series are often referred to as hexadrachms owing to the contrast in weight with the comparatively light tetradrachms struck contemporaneously in the Celtic world. They alternatively may be described as Attic weight tetradrachms. However labeled, their size and purity are testament to the prosperity of the Boii on the eve of Roman domination of the region. The present type, associated with the beginning of the series, displays an obverse copied from the denarii of Q. Fufius Kalenus and Mucius Cordus (Crawford 403/1).