Silver Drachm with goat and rowel

The Allobroges occupied the territory between the Rhône, the Isère, and the Arc rivers — roughly modern Savoie and Dauphiné — and were one of the few Gallic tribes to mint in silver rather than the potin or bronze favored by their neighbors. Their coinage accelerated sharply after 121 BC, when Rome annexed their lands as part of Gallia Transalpina, creating a client relationship that generated both tribute obligations and increased commercial traffic requiring small silver. The rowel motif seen on this type is a diagnostic marker distinguishing Allobrogian issues from superficially similar drachms of adjacent tribes.