Obol

Massalia — the Greek colonial city modern Marseille occupies — was among the most prolific coin-issuing poleis of the western Mediterranean, and its fractional silver coinage circulated far inland along trade routes into Gaul well before Celtic peoples began striking their own issues. The obol denomination specifically served the small transactions of a busy port economy: fish, oil, day labor.

LT 508 places this piece within Latour's foundational typology of Gaulish and proto-Gaulish coinage, itself a reminder that Massalian fractions were the direct prototypes Celtic die-cutters would eventually imitate and progressively abstract over subsequent centuries.