Catalog
1/4 Gold Stater with plant on head Class V
| Issuer | Gaul Veneti |
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| Year | 200 BC - 100 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Bare male head facing right, rendered in the stylised La Tène artistic tradition, with a distinctive four-leaved plant motif rising from the crown of the head. The hair is depicted as a series of flowing, curvilinear strands terminating in pellets, and the entire effigy is encircled by multiple strings of pellets or pearls arranged in a decorative border. The facial features are rendered in a schematic, abstract Celtic manner characteristic of Class V Venetic quarter staters. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Veneti occupied the Atlantic coast of Armorica — roughly modern-day Brittany — and controlled the tin trade routes between Britain and the Mediterranean world. Caesar's destruction of their fleet in 56 BC effectively ended their political independence, making coins struck before that campaign the last material evidence of an autonomous Venetic monetary tradition. Class V quarter staters are distinguished from earlier Venetic issues by progressive abstraction in the die work, a regional trend that accelerated sharply in the late second century.