Viridovix' Boar

There is one boar design that occurs on no other Celtic coins, and while appearing to be an icon, it has neither the base line nor the associated sun symbol. This anomalous boar appears on all of the coins of Series Z - issued by Virodovix of the Unelli: The commander-in chief of the rebel Armorican tribes at the end of the Gallic war.

As you can see from the above drawing, the boar appears to have its front and back legs bound together. It is at this time that the

earliest inscriptions appear on western Celtic coins. Could we be seeing here a visual pun where the 'V' formed by the legs might stand for either Viridovix or VNELLI? We may never know.