bga_156636 - CENTER, UNSPECIFIED Bronze à l'aigle (semis ou quadrans), imitation

CENTER, UNSPECIFIED

(1st century BC)

Often these monetary series with the eagle (RPC. 508 = RIC. 227 = BN 4730) or the bull (RPC. 509 = RIC 228 = LT. 9266) were given to the imperial mint in Lyon. This attribution is questioned by the celticists who prefer to see in it a purely local coinage. The authors of the Roman Provincial Coinage would like to recognize there auxiliary workshops, dependent on the capital of Gaul and having perhaps minted on behalf of the troops stationed in the region. In fact, it could be Romanized issues of the Aedui, Sequani or Lingones, or even Leuci or Treveri. The workshop or workshops that would have manufactured these species are still located north of Lyon. These workshops would then have fulfilled the same role as Vienna, Orange, Narbonne, Lyon or Nîmes some thirty years earlier: the creation, supply and distribution of small extra cash in order to supplement or replace the demonetized purely Celtic coinage.