Department of Coins and Medals, Hungarian National Museum: Collection of Celtic Coins
MúzeumCafé 9.
The 350,000 items of the Department of Coins and Medals comprises the second largest numismatic collection in central Europe. Its origins derive from a compilation of 2,675 Hungarian and Transylvanian coins which Ferenc Széchényi donated to the Hungarian nation in 1802. A tiny section is constituted by a few thousand Celtic coins, which represent a part of Europe’s cultural heritage, since the Celts dominated much of the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea. Celtic civilisation was present in the territory of today’s Hungary for nearly four hundred years before gradually dissolving in the large melting pot of the Roman Empire. The Celts were Europe’s first ‘Barbarians’ to mint and use coins. Between c310 and c275 B.C., during their forays against the Greek world and later their mercenary service in Hellenistic armies, they became acquainted with minted coins and their use, and already at the start of the 3rd century B.C. they began imitating Greek coins. Very soon a characteristic Celtic numismatic art emerged, though it was not homogenous. The traditions, creativity and talent of different coin makers and mints produced great variations, even in the case of coins where preceding images can be detected. The National Museum mostly has finds from the area of the Carpathian Basin, a significant part of which came from private collections. Celts living in the area favoured the silver tetradrachms of Philip II of Macedon (358-336), the bearded head of Zeus with a laureate on the obverse and a young horse rider holding a palm branch on the reverse. Although the influence of other Greek coinage can be observed, the horse rider or sometimes just the figure of a horse was to remain a dominating image on Celtic coins. Several motifs (a wheel, wild bore or a bird) have cultic significance, but it is difficult to prove a connection with specific Celtic divinities. Celtic coins present a problem in terms not only of the meaning of their images but also their time of production. They lack inscriptions which might reveal a time of origin and the majority are not found in site layers which can be dated or together with datable items. This is generally true for finds in Hungary and thus the coins excavated in Egyházasdengeleg in Nógrád county in 1969 had great significance. The discovery included a dish holding the coins which, according to archaeological parallels, can be dated to the middle third of the 3rd century B.C. In the past the chronology of coins was assessed by researchers using a ‘deterioration line’. The more a type of coin differed from its archetypes, the less its weight and silver content, the further it was minted in time from the originals. Today this approach must be treated far more carefully, particularly because Celtic coins were not continuously manufactured by a single mint but were produced in various places by craftsmen of differing talent, and high or very low quality impressions could exist simultaneously. In addition, it is not all the same why and in what quantity a given type of coin was minted. The central issue of modern numismatic research focuses on the nature of the Celtic use of money. Were the coins really made for use in trade or were they only so-called vanity mints? Can temporary or continuous and regular minting be considered? The factors clearly varied according to territory and the existence and the actual use of coins did not necessarily coincide. Change, in the sense of small coins, represents the precondition of money use in the present sense of the word and its appearance is connected to urban-like settlements (oppida). In certain parts of Gaul this must have been the case already in the first half of the 2nd century B.C. The process – albeit to a lesser extent – can be clearly observed in the Carpathian Basin during the 1st century B.C. Then, by the end of the century, the Roman conquerors appeared in the region.