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Æ Semis
| Issuer | Kastilo, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 80 BC - 40 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Laureate male head facing right, adorned with infulas (ritual fillets) hanging behind the neck. An external legend reading M.BAL.F appears before the portrait in the field, with the abbreviated inscription MQ positioned behind the head. The style is characteristic of Iberian municipal bronze coinage of the late Republican period, with a somewhat rough provincial execution. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Bull standing to the right, rendered in a rough provincial style, positioned atop a ground line. A crescent symbol appears above the bull's back in the upper field. The design follows a common Iberian civic iconographic tradition, with the bull serving as a regional emblematic type frequently encountered on coinage of the Hispano-Roman municipalities during the late Republican era. |
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| Additional information |
Kastilo was one of the most important mining centers in the upper Guadalquivir valley, its silver and lead deposits worked intensively under Roman administration following the Punic Wars. This small bronze fractional issue belongs to a broader wave of locally authorized Hispanic coinage that Rome permitted — and in many cases encouraged — as a practical solution to the chronic shortage of small-denomination currency in the peninsula's interior. The city's minting activity wound down as Augustan monetary reforms gradually centralized production and eliminated most provincial autonomous issues.