v45_0901 - SPAGNA - EMPORION (AMPURIAS) Drachme au cavalier

EMPORION and Celtic imitations (AMPURIAS)

(3rd - 2nd century BC)

The notion of people or tribe seems to disappear with regard to certain attributions when we examine the imitation coins of Emporion or Rhodè. If the prototypes are struck beyond the Pyrenees, the imitations were issued on both sides of the mountain range. The early death of R. Boudet (1958-1995) did not allow him to establish a corpus of these coins. The finds are not limited to Aquitaine, but are spread over the great West between the Loire and the Pyrenees, i.e. nearly a third of the territory of ancient Gaul. The finds of imitations of the drachma of Emporion, which seems to have had a wider distribution, are numerous and spread over the whole of the geographical area: from Charnizay in the Indre-et-Loire or Issoudun in the 'Indre to Ruscino in the Pyrénées-Orientales.