Expanded afternoon edition — September 20, 2026.
A roughly 5,400-square-foot mint at Corent in central France operated before Caesar’s Gallic Wars. Excavators found little precious-metal waste, stones worn by trimming coins to weight, and a lead test blank carrying a precious-metal coin design. Someone deliberately defaced the blank, apparently preventing reuse for counterfeiting. Le Monde, September 17
A treasure shows what people valued. These workshop traces suggest how skilled routines, inspection and authority fitted into a working day. The interpretation is provisional, but the scale strengthens the argument for Corent’s political importance before the Roman conquest. The rejected test piece may explain the institution more vividly than a perfect coin could.