As PR II VIR L NEP L SVRA

Celsa — the Roman colony established at modern Velilla de Ebro in the Ebro valley — was granted the right to strike its own bronze coinage as part of Rome's broader policy of integrating the Iberian provinces after Caesar's Gallic wars. The duoviri named in the legend, L. Nepet and L. Sura, served as the magistrates responsible for authorizing this issue, a civic function that also functioned as a form of local political advertisement. Colonial bronzes from the Spanish provinces in this period were struck to supply a region chronically short of small-denomination currency from the central mints.