Tetradrachm Sattelkopfpferd Type

Dacian silver coinage of this period derives ultimately from the Macedonian tetradrachms of Philip II, which flooded the Balkans following his campaigns in the mid-4th century BC. Over generations of local copying, the original types degraded through successive die-to-die imitation into increasingly abstracted forms — the "Sattelkopfpferd," or saddle-headed horse, being one of the most visually extreme evolutionary endpoints of that process. The Muntenian series in particular shows pronounced stylistic drift from neighboring Dacian groups, suggesting mint isolation or deliberate local convention rather than shared die production.