Iberian Coinage

Iberian coinage is the body of coins struck on the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) before and during the Roman conquest, roughly from the fifth century BCE to the first century CE. It includes the silver of the Greek colonies on the Catalan coast, the issues of Phoenician and Carthaginian cities in the south, and the large series of silver and bronze coins struck by native Iberian and Celtiberian communities with legends in their own scripts.

These coins are an important source for the languages of ancient Spain, since many inscriptions in the Iberian and Celtiberian scripts survive mainly on coins.

The first coins made in Iberia came from the Greek colony of Emporion (Empúries, Catalonia), founded by settlers from Phocaea by way of Massalia. From around the late fifth century BCE Emporion issued small silver fractions, and in the third century BCE it struck drachms showing the head of the nymph Arethusa with dolphins and a winged horse on the reverse. The neighbouring colony of Rhode (Roses) issued drachms with a rose. These Greek pieces, related to the wider family of the Attic drachma and the obol, were widely copied by native peoples.

In the south, the Phoenician city of Gadir (Cádiz) struck bronze and some silver with Punic legends, typically showing the head of Melqart, identified with Hercules, and tunny fish, reflecting the city's fishing trade. Other southern towns, such as Malaca (Málaga) and Ebusus (Ibiza), also issued coins in the Phoenician tradition.

After the First Punic War the Carthaginian Barcid family, led by Hamilcar, Hasdrubal and Hannibal, built a power base in southern and eastern Spain from 237 BCE. They struck silver and bronze coins, often with a male head on the obverse and a horse, elephant or ship's prow on the reverse, used largely to pay mercenaries. The Barcid coinage ended when Rome expelled Carthage from Spain in 206 BCE during the Second Punic War.

Under Roman rule in the second and early first centuries BCE, dozens of native communities struck their own coins. The typical design was a bearded or beardless male head on the obverse and a horseman carrying a spear, palm or sword on the reverse, with the town's name written in the north-eastern Iberian or Celtiberian script. Mints included Kese (near Tarraco, modern Tarragona), Bolskan (Osca, modern Huesca), Turiasu (Tarazona), Sekobirikes and many others.

The native silver coin, often called the Iberian denarius, was struck at roughly the weight of the Roman denarius, so that it could circulate alongside Roman silver and serve to pay taxes and tribute. Large numbers of bronze units and halves served as small change, much like the Roman as. Scholars still debate whether these issues were imposed by Rome to raise tribute or chosen by local elites, and the answer may have varied by region.

Most native silver ceased in the first century BCE, probably in connection with the Sertorian War of the 70s BCE, after which Roman silver dominated. Bronze coinage continued in many towns, gradually switching from Iberian to Latin legends. Under Augustus and his successors a number of Spanish cities struck provincial bronze with the emperor's portrait. These local mints closed in the reign of Caligula, around 41 CE, after which Hispania relied on coins struck centrally, including the sestertius and the gold aureus.

Iberian coinage shows how a region with rich silver mines moved from using weighed metal and barter to an integrated monetary economy within the Roman world. It parallels developments in Gaulish coinage and Etruscan coinage, where local issues gave way to Roman money. Spanish silver also fed the wider Mediterranean economy, and the peninsula's mines later supplied much of the metal for Roman currency. Many centuries later Spain's silver would again shape world money through the Spanish real.

• Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid)
• American Numismatic Society