Ancient Iberian coinage

Ancient Iberia was connected to the eastern and central Mediterranean, and so there are links to the Greek, Roman and Punic (Carthaginian) civic coinages.

[8] These coins were part of a colonial frontier economy in which indigenous towns traded wines, ceramics and finished goods primarily for raw materials: precious metals, wood, food products and perhaps slaves.

[13] In the north of the Iberian peninsula, the Massiliote Greek colonies of Emporion and Rhode minted mainly silver coins from the mid-fifth and late fourth centuries, respectively.

[14][15][16] Further to the south, the Phoenician colonies of Ebusus and Gadir minted bronze coins from the second half of the fourth and early third centuries, respectively.

[17][18] Additionally, the prominent Iberian town of Arse (Roman Saguntum) minted bronze and silver coins from the middle of the fourth century.

[21] In many such hoards, some of the silver has been cut into small pieces, which can be related to finds of weights and scales and suggests that this metal circulated as a form of 'proto-money'.

Some of these coins imitate the drachmas of Emporion or Massalia, while others have Iberian legends, a few of which can be related to towns or peoples but many of which are unknown or illegible.

The main catalogue for these coins is the Corpus nummum hispaniae ante Augusti aetatem (CNH) but see also the more recent Diccionario de cecas y pueblos hispánicos.

[38][39] From around the mid-first century BC, the number of towns emitting coins decreased and Latin legends were standardised throughout the Peninsula.

[40] Coins were mainly now emitted by more important towns that had received privileged juridical status from victorious Roman generals in the Civil Wars and then from the new Julio-Claudian emperors Augustus and Tiberius.

[3] A handful of mints in eastern Iberia did attempt to retain the jinete coins with bilingual Iberian and Latin legends, but this did not become popular.

The peak of these provincial emissions was under Augustus and Tiberius, and the last 'local' coins were emitted under the emperor Caligula, in the mid-first century AD.