Gaulish Coinage

Gaulish coinage is the coinage produced by the Celtic peoples of Gaul, the region roughly covering modern France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and parts of the Rhineland, from around the third century BCE until shortly after the Roman conquest. It began with copies of Greek gold coins and developed into a varied system of gold, silver, billon, struck bronze and cast potin coins issued by individual tribes.

Gaulish coins are known for their abstract, highly stylised designs, in which heads and horses borrowed from Greek models were broken down into patterns of curves, dots and symbols.

The Greek city of Massalia (Marseille), founded around 600 BCE, struck silver from the fifth century BCE, and its small coins and later drachms circulated in southern Gaul and were copied there. Further north, the main model was the gold stater of Philip II of Macedon, the Macedonian stater, with a laureate head of Apollo on the obverse and a two-horse chariot on the reverse. Celtic warriors served as mercenaries in the Hellenistic world, and gold staters brought home as pay or plunder are thought to have provided the prototypes. Over several generations Gaulish engravers turned the chariot into a single stylised horse and the head into a pattern of locks and wreath.

Gaulish gold staters and quarter-staters were struck by many tribes, including the Arverni, Parisii and Ambiani. The northern Belgic tribes produced large, broad gold staters that also crossed the Channel and became the starting point for Iron Age British coinage. Over time the gold content of many series fell, a form of currency debasement that seems to have accelerated during the wars of the 50s BCE.

In Armorica (Brittany and Normandy) tribes such as the Coriosolitae struck staters in billon, a silver-copper alloy, often decorated with human-headed horses. A hoard found at Le Câtillon in Jersey in 2012 contained tens of thousands of such coins, probably buried around the time of the Roman conquest. In central and eastern Gaul small silver coins, often called quinarii because their weight resembled the Roman quinarius, became common in the first century BCE and fitted alongside the Roman denarius.

For small change, Gauls used struck bronze and potin. Potin coins were cast in strips of moulds from a copper alloy with a high tin content, then snapped apart, often leaving visible casting stubs. They were plentiful in north-eastern Gaul and around Massalia's trading networks and probably served everyday local exchange that had once relied on barter.

Historians debate how far Gaulish coins functioned as general-purpose money. High-value gold may have been used mainly for payments to warriors, for gift exchange, tribute and religious offerings; many coins are found at sanctuaries. By the first century BCE, however, the growth of small silver and bronze issues, and finds at oppida (fortified towns), suggest that coins were also used as a medium of exchange in markets and as a store of value in hoards.

During Julius Caesar's campaigns of 58 to 50 BCE, leaders such as Vercingetorix of the Arverni issued gold staters bearing their names. After the conquest, some tribes continued to strike silver and bronze for a few decades, increasingly with Latin legends and Roman-style designs. By the time of Augustus these issues had died out, and Gaul used Roman coins such as the as, with a major imperial mint at Lugdunum (Lyon). Gaulish coinage is often studied alongside Iberian coinage and Dacian coinage as examples of Celtic and other European peoples adapting Greek currency to their own needs.

• British Museum
• Musée d'Archéologie nationale