Catalog
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| Issuer | Caleti |
|---|---|
| Year | 80 BC - 50 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | LT#8697, DT#95-96, GCV#119, Sp#9, V#37, ABC#37, Mack#8, Sp#8, V#35, Mack#6 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A stylized horse leaping to the left, rendered in the abstract Celtic manner with balled or pellet-tipped limbs. Behind the horse, fragmentary vestiges of a charioteer figure are visible, with a vertical pole or driving rod positioned upright. Beneath the horse, a lyre motif lies horizontally to the left, serving as a decorative subsidiary symbol characteristic of the Caleti coinage series. The entire composition is executed in the schematized, highly abstracted La Tène style, with no inscription or legend present. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Caleti were a small Belgic tribe occupying the coastal strip of what is now the Seine-Maritime department of Normandy, wedged between the more powerful Veliocasses and the sea. Caesar mentions them only in passing, but their territory's position made them unavoidable participants in the broader Belgic resistance of the mid-first century BC. Whether this fractional coinage circulated as a functional medium of exchange or served primarily as a mechanism for paying warriors and settling obligations among the elite remains an open question — the archaeological findspot distribution is too thin for conclusions.
The dense cross-referencing across LT, DT, ABC, and Mack reflects decades of scholarly disagreement about Caletic attribution and die groupings rather than any exceptional complexity in the type itself.