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Potin with diabolical head and wolf
| Issuer | Carnutes |
|---|---|
| Year | 80 BC - 50 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 18 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A highly stylized wolf depicted in profile facing left with jaws agape, rendered in the abstract La Tène decorative vocabulary characteristic of Carnutes tribal coinage. The animal is explicitly sexed, with the tail curled between the hind legs, and prominent ribs indicated by incised lines along the flank. A bouldered crosslet or pellet-in-annulet motif appears above the dorsal line of the beast. The composition fills the irregular flan with no border or legend, the whole executed in low cast relief with strong graphic simplification. |
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| Mintage | ND (80 BC - 50 BC) |
| Additional information |
The Carnutes occupied the territory around what is now Chartres and Orléans, and their lands held particular religious significance among the Gauls — Caesar identified the region as the annual gathering point for the druidic council. Whether that priestly authority influenced the imagery on this potin is speculative, but the type clearly draws on a visual vocabulary distinct from the coin's more Romanized contemporaries.
Potin — a lead-tin-copper alloy — was cast rather than struck, placing production outside the infrastructure of a proper mint entirely. The Carnutes issued this type during the decades immediately preceding Caesar's Gallic Wars, which effectively ended indigenous coin production in the region by the 50s BC.