Celtic coinage is of an almost unmanageable diversity. This reflects the political structure of the Celts, who never lived in a Celtic nation, but in a multitude of small tribal communities. By and by, their expansion led to a territory characterized by Celtic culture whose spaciousness is astounding.
The Celts came in contact with coined money through the Greeks, with whom they maintained trade and for whom they fought as mercenaries. As a result, most Celtic coins were modeled after Greek archetypes. Soon, however, the Celtic engravers started to redesign the original coin images according to their own appreciation for art, thus creating ingenious little artworks of a typical Celtic style.
Celtic coins can be roughly classified in eastern, middle and western issues. Yet it is difficult to reconstruct Celtic currency systems; currency areas can only be supposed as well. Still, there were significant differences between the coinages of the Celtic tribes in the east and the west – while the western Celts preferred their coins to be made of gold, the eastern tribes minted their money predominantly in silver.
