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Coinage in Celtic society

ceotuo bc Caesar encountered these conditions in Southern Britain. at a time u hen native coinage had ordy very recently entered its first phase.

The second phase

The second phase of Celtic coinage seems to represent fundamenta] K the same type of society at a la ter stage in its development u hen a deeper noble hierarchy had formed. No w, frorn two to four senior chiefs had become minor kings or overlords of entire districts (pagi) wjthin each tri bal territory, each with a nurnber of dependants among the lesser nobility, and struggling touards paramount kingship among themsehes. Since this could not be tolerated. tri bal cohesion still depended upon shared ceremonia! (perhaps focused upon the person of a tri bal king, but if so, a king who was not a war leader, a situation that may have prevailed among the first-century Belgae or the British tri bal periphery: see chapters 6 and 7) and voluntary co-operation among the militarily active senior nobility. Under these conditions, mass emigration was a relatively simple remedy for intolerable social tensions, and second-phase gold coinages provide valuable evidence for the colonial movements of some of the Rhineland Celts during the third and second centuries bc, and the Belgae thereafter. Although few lesser nobles now struck their own coinages, perhaps because they were no longer independent war leaders, district overlords evidently did. Thus a relatively smali number of proportionately larger and geographically better defined coinages came into existence within certain tribal territories. Some were quite distinct from one another, as was the case in some western and central areas of second-cen tury Caul, while others were interrełated, as among the British tribal groupings of the first cen tury ad. This development was accompanied by a generał drop in the weight and fineness of the coins in order to spin out the bullion for mass payments, but second-phase coinages from different tribal areas nonetheless remained compatible in weight and alloy, which hints at another inherent characteristic of a Celtic society at this phase in its development.

In societies such as these, it was important for district chiefs to be able to attract, entertain, and pay noble retainers and warrior mercenaries from other tribal groupings, and the exchange of gifts, often in the form of weighed precious-metal objects, was a social institution of fundamenta! importance. The custom of passing on gifts already received pro babi y contributed to the untidy geo-graphical distribution of valuable iterns such as gold coins onee they had left their original sphere of circulation. There were, therefore, many forms of treasure, and hoards of second-phase coins often also eon tai n other status objects such as torques or jewellery. The great second-phase Tayac hoard from the Gironde (Platę 8) contained at least 325 mid-second century gold coins, all of similar weight, from four wideły separated areas of Gaul, three heavy unstruck gold ingots, and a gold torque weighing 762 g. such as the Gaesatae and other ‘heroic* Celts are said to have worn into battle. If warrior chiefs from central Europę to the Channel struck gold coinage to approximately the same standard of weight and fineness, regardless of its design, it would great!y facilitate inter-changes of men and money. In the Tayac hoard, the torque — a princely payment-object — also weighed almost exactly one hundred times the weight of the usual gold stater of that period, suggesting some deliberate comparability among precious objects of different status. Torques, indeed, are frequently represented on Celtic coinages in everv area from the Danube to Britain, marking the lesser form of wealth with the character of the greater (Platę 7 and 8).

The third phase

The third coinage phase seems to emanate from the most highly developed forms of Celtic society — paramount tribal kingdoms and oligarchie States.

The Financial cost of maintaining a steeply ranked Celtic society was almost prohibitive. To survive in his position, a high king or paramount had to satisfy subordinate nobles’ ambitions by providing lavish entertainment at court and guaranteeing access to the Mediterranean world and its immediate European neigh-bours by maintaining costly diplomatic ties and trading agree-ments. Gifts were expected. A permanent establishment of retainers, poets, and craftsmen had to be sustained, and merce-naries might have to be hired. The principal settlements of Celtic paramount kingdoms are often still prominent marks ori the landscape — in warrior societies, sprawling agglomerations enclos-ing residential areas, religious eentres, and livestock pens within a system of earthworks (e.g. in the Colchester area in the first