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Gold 1/4 Stater - Eastern North Thames Tring Wheel
| Issuer | Trinovantes tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 45 BC - 40 BC |
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| Reference(s) | ABC#2228 |
| Obverse description | Highly stylised and fragmented head derived from a classical prototype, rendered in the abstract La Tène artistic tradition. The design is composed of curvilinear elements including sinuous comma-shaped pellets and flowing lines suggesting hair or foliage. A prominent beaded or pellet-studded collar element is visible across the lower field, and serpentine curves dominate the upper register. The entire composition is uninscribed, characteristic of pre-Conquest Celtic coinage of this region and period. |
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| Reverse description | A stylised horse progressing to the right, rendered in the abstract Celtic manner with strongly curved body and bulbous pellet joints at the shoulder and hindquarters. Below the horse a prominent wheel or rayed sun-disc motif with serrated border occupies the lower field, the so-called 'Tring wheel' that is the diagnostic feature of this type. A six-spoked star or wheel symbol appears in the upper field, accompanied by a dotted arc or beaded lunate above the horse's back. Additional annulet and spiral devices fill the field to the left. The flan is irregular and uninscribed. |
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| Additional information |
The Tring Wheel type takes its name from the Tring area of Hertfordshire, where several examples were found before the hoard and detector finds that expanded the known distribution into Essex and southern Cambridgeshire — broadly the Trinovantian heartland north of the Thames. These fractional staters circulated during a period when Caesar's two expeditions into Britain had already disrupted existing tribal hierarchies, and the Trinovantes were navigating a precarious position: they had actually appealed to Caesar against Cassivellaunus in 54 BC, making them unusual collaborators rather than resistors.
The wheel motif on this type is thought to carry solar or votive associations consistent with broader La Tène religious iconography.