Getting Started with Celtic Coins – Crude and Barbarous, or Just Different?

“I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them” Pablo Picasso People who are unfamiliar with Celtic coins sometimes describe them as crude or barbarous, suggesting that the Celts were unskilled artists. On the contrary, the archaeological record shows that they were very skilled artists, engravers and metal workers, so we need to assume that their coins looked exactly like they wanted them to look. An original Greek coin and a Celtic copy. The Celts could copy just fine There are four potential reasons why people might think that the coins are crude or barbarous. Firstly, people are used to coins featuring classical art. This is what they see on Greek, Roman and modern coins, so it’s natural that they compare Celtic coins to this standard. Because classical art on coins is the norm, they may subconsciously assume that all coins are supposed to render real life as closely as possible. The Celts were practitioners of abstract art, so the coins look alien and clumsy to those not ... Read full article.