“The iconographic lineage” of Toc-Chereluș coin-type. Relationship between Dacian scyphates and the coins from the Scordisci territory

Abstract

The article resumes the topic of the lineage relationship between the Crișeni Berchieș stage b issues and Toc Chereluș imitations. The coin hoards found at Ostrovul Șimian (Romania) and Krčedin (Serbia) and the hybrid issues legitimize Karl Pink’s view on locating coins Crișeni Berchieș stage b in the Scordisci area. The relationship with the Sirmium type and the Dyrrhachium drachmas amends the chronology of the Crișeni Berchieș stage b issues, which goes back from the first half of the 2nd century BC to the end of this century or (sooner) early 1st century BC. Aspects related to the prototype’s location and dating directly impact the establishment of the Toc Chereluș scyphates’ chronology. The Toc Chereluș scyphates are the result of mixing two monetary types issued in the Scordisci area: the Crișeni Berchieș stage b issues for the obverse and those of type Sirmium for the reverse. The chronology of the Toc Chereluș imitations, broadly framed to the second half of the 2nd century BC and first decades of the following century is therefore narrowed down. Copies cannot precede the prototype and, given also the suggested chronology for the Macedonia Prima and Thasos tetradrachms, we believe that Toc Chereluș coins were struck after early 1st century BC. As a result, the hypothesis on the continuity of the local mint from Dacia must be abandoned, since between the Celtic coinage in the first stage and the Toc Chereluș scyphates, which together with those intra Carpathian compose the second stage, there is a gap of almost half a century.