Corieltauvi Gold Stater

February 12, 2021February 12, 2021 Peter

Glenn Lister said he had been detecting for 40 years before he found an example of the coin pictured here in January of 2019. It’s a gold stater of the Corieltauvi. Was it worth the wait? I don’t really know but it does prove that you should never give up hope.

It is an example of the South Ferriby type, which is number 390 in the Standard Catalogue and number 1743 in Ancient British Coins. The obverse has the usual degraded head and on the reverse is a disjointed horse with an ‘anchor face’ above.

gold stater in Glen's hand — The gold stater in Glen’s hand with other gold coins

Glenn described the coin as being debased, presumably because it was dark in colour when it surfaced. However, it weighs 5.3 grams, which suggests it could be solid gold. Additionally, it is not particularly unusual for staters of the Corieltauvi to be struck in coppery gold. The images look very bright but this is probably due to the lighting when the shots of the stater on its own were taken

Valuation

The obverse has been struck from what must have been a very worn die, as the detail is blurred. The reverse is much better and would grade good VF but with a few scuffs. A pre-sale auction estimate on a genuine South Ferriby gold stater in similar condition would be £280-350.

However, if Glenn’s find did prove not to be solid good then the estimate would be a good deal lower.