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Biatec was the name of a person, presumably a king, who appeared on the Celtic coins minted by the Biatex Hexadrachm
/ref> Biatecs, in fact hexadrachms and tetradrachms made of high-quality
Biatec was the name of a person, presumably a king, who appeared on the Celtic coins minted by the Boii
The Boii (Latin language, Latin plural, singular ''Boius''; ) were a Celts, Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul (present-day Northern Italy), Pannonia (present-day Austria and Hungary), present-day Ba ...
in Bratislava
Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
(the capital of Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
) in the 1st century BC. The word Biatec (or Biatex) is also used as the name of those coins. In the literature, they are also sometimes referred to as " hexadrachms of the Bratislava type"./ref> Biatecs, in fact hexadrachms and tetradrachms made of high-quality
silver
Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
and gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
, bear inscriptions in capital Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
letters. Among 14 different inscriptions (for example NONNOS, DEVIL, BUSU, BUSSUMARUS, TITTO), BIATEC appears most frequently. The inscriptions represent the oldest-known use of writing in Slovakia and the neighboring territories. The coins have a diameter of 25 millimeters and a weight of 16.5–17 grams. The obverse usually shows various depictions of a head or a pair of heads. The reverse usually shows a horseman, but various mythological and real animals also feature.
References