Catalog
Obol with negroid head
| Issuer | Volcæ Tectosages |
|---|---|
| Year | 60 BC - 25 BC |
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| Value | 1 Obol |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Schematized and stylized effigy of a negroid head rendered in the La Tène Celtic artistic tradition, depicted facing or in profile within the irregular flan. The facial features are highly abstracted, with the design reduced to bold, summary relief elements characteristic of late Gaulish silver coinage of the Volcae Tectosages. No legend or inscription appears in the field. The surface shows the typical rough texture and variable relief of a hand-struck hammered flan of very small module. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A stylized quadruped, likely a horse or bull, depicted in a schematic Celtic manner occupying the central field of the irregular flan. The design is executed in a bold, linear style characteristic of late Gaulish coinage, with the limbs and body rendered as simplified raised lines. The composition is divided by a cruciform or segmented arrangement of lines framing the animal motif. No legend or inscription is present, and the plain flat field surrounds the device without any exergual marking. |
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| Additional information |
The Volcae Tectosages occupied territory around Tolosa (modern Toulouse), a city whose name appears in Roman sources specifically because of a catastrophic sacred treasury incident in 106 BC — the consul Caepio plundered the town's temple gold and silver, was subsequently routed by the Cimbri, and the "Cursed Gold of Tolosa" became a byword in Roman moralizing literature for generations. These tiny obols were struck well after that episode, during a period of gradual Roman administrative absorption of Gallia Narbonensis.
The negroid head type on LT 3351 is a recognized iconographic subgroup among southern Gaulish silver fractions, likely derived from Massaliote prototypes that themselves drew on North African or Ptolemaic coin imagery transmitted through Mediterranean trade networks.