Celts in Transylvania Transylvania, Romania. This would result in the minting of later Celtic coins elsewhere that are considered miniature works of art. Evidence of the Hallstatt culture in Dacia, as well as the political and economic rule of the Celts, suggests that it was the Celts, not the Dacians, who minted these silver coins based on the Macedonian Tetradrachmae of Philip II (r. 382–336 BC). According to Zirra, this theory is supported by numismatist, C. Pedra, who argues that the Celts of Dacia first began minting coins in the mid-3rd to the mid-2nd century BC, after which, native mints lasted until the
Transylvania 1526, Transylvania was a voivodeship in the Kingdom of Hungary, led by a voivode appointed by the King of Hungary. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of János Szapolyai. Later, in 1570, the kingdom transformed into the Principality of Transylvania, which was ruled primarily by Calvinist Hungarian princes. During that time, the ethnic composition of Transylvania transformed from an estimated near equal number of the ethnic groups to a Romanian majority. Vasile Lupu estimates their number already more than one-third of the population of Transylvania in a letter to the sultan around 1650.