Celtic coinage was minted by theCelts from the late 4th century BC to the mid 1st century AD. Celtic coins were influenced by trade with and the supply of mercenaries to the Greeks, and initially copied Greek designs, especiallyMacedonian coins from the time ofPhilip II of Macedon and his son,Alexander the Great.[1][2][3] Thus Greek motifs andeven letters can be found on various Celtic coins, especially those of southern France.[4]
The images found on Celtic coins include horsemen charging into battle, wheels, thunderbolts and lightning, the sun and the moon.
Greek coinage occurred in three Greek cities ofMassalia,Emporiae andRhoda, and was copied throughout southern Gaul.[2]
Northern Gaulish coins were especially influenced by the coinage ofPhilip II of Macedon and his famous sonAlexander the Great.[2] Celtic coins often retained Greek subjects, such as the head ofApollo on the obverse and two-horsechariot on the reverse of the goldstater of Philip II, but developed their own style from that basis, allowing for the development of a Graeco-Celtic synthesis.[2]
After this first period in which Celtic coins rather faithfully reproduced Greek types, designs started to become more symbolic, as exemplified by the coinage of theParisii in the Belgic region of northern France.[2]
TheArmorican Celtic style in northwestern Gaul also developed from Celtic designs from theRhine valley, themselves derived from earlier Greek prototypes such as the wine scroll and splitpalmette.[2]
TheBoii gave their name to Bohemia and Bologna; a Celtic coin (Biatec) fromBratislava's mint is displayed on a Slovak 5 koruna coin, which was in use until Slovakia joined the euro zone on January 1, 2009.
A tribe of Celts calledEburones minted gold coins with triple spirals (a Celtic good luck symbol) on the front, and horses on the back.[5]
The coins were eitherstruck orcast. Both methods required a substantial degree of knowledge. Striking a blank coin formed in a clay mould was one way. After forming the blank, it would have been flattened out before striking with a die made from iron or bronze. The tiny details engraved on dies were just a few millimeters in diameter. Casting a coin required a different technique. They were produced by pouring molten alloy into a set of molds which were broken apart when the metal had cooled.
With the Roman invasion of Gaul, Greek-inspired Celtic coinage started to incorporate Roman influence instead, until it disappeared to be completely replaced by Roman coinage.[2]
Traditional historians have tended to overlook the role played by Celtic coinage in the early history of British money.[6]
Over 45,000 of the ancient British and Gaulish coins discovered in Britain have been recorded at the Oxford Celtic Coin Index.[7][8] TheTrinovantian tribaloppidum ofCamulodunum (modernColchester) was minting large numbers of coins in the first centuries BC and AD, which have been found across Southern Britain.[9] Common motifs on the Camulodunon coins included horses and wheat/barley sheafs,[10] with the names of the rulers usually in Latin script, or more rarely in Greek.[10]
