Diobol

Massalia — modern Marseille — was a Phocaean Greek colony founded around 600 BC that retained remarkable monetary independence long after Rome had absorbed most of its neighbors. By the second century BC the city was technically a Roman ally, but continued striking its own silver coinage under Greek civic authority. These small diobols circulated primarily in the local and regional trade networks of southern Gaul, where Massalian silver had been trusted currency for centuries. The SNG Copenhagen and La Tour references both attest to the type's relative consistency, with only minor die variations across the period.