Gold stater of the Catuvellauni

This week we’ve already had one Ancient British gold stater and here is another.  The specimen illustrated here was unearthed very recently by Robert Piercy.

On the obverse is a crossed wreath design with back-to-back voided crescents in the centre and various ornaments in the angles. On the reverse is a horse facing right with a large ring and dot below and a variety of ornaments in the field.

The details listed above mark out this stater as being a coin of the Catuvellauni. In Ancient British Coins it is listed as the Middle Whaddon Chase type (number 2445). However, Robert’s example is struck from a different obverse die. Note in particular the two small rings over the horse’s rump. I traced three examples on the market over very recent years and all were the same as ABC 2445. However, after checking the examples on the Celtic Coin Index the number on record of each variety (two rings or no rings) is roughly the same

Valuation

The reverse has been struck off centre and there is some flatness to the edge on both sides but the coin is otherwise in VF condition. It’s a decent looking specimen of a very rare type and if it was offered for sale at auction I would expect the pre-sale estimate to be £800 to £1,000.

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