Bronze with birds and snake

The Carnutes occupied the territory around modern Chartres and Orléans — the region Roman sources, including Caesar, identified as the ritual center of all Gaul, where Druids gathered annually to settle disputes and conduct rites. Whether that religious authority influenced the iconographic choices on their coinage is impossible to confirm, but the Carnutes were among the tribes that initiated the great revolt of 52 BC, and coin production likely intensified in the years immediately surrounding that conflict.

Small cast or struck bronzes of this type circulated as low-denomination exchange within tribal markets rather than for tribute or military pay.