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Gold 1/4 Stater Harlow Wheel
| Issuer | Catuvellauni tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 55 BC - 45 BC |
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| Composition | Gold |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A highly stylised horse prances to the right, rendered in the characteristic linear Celtic manner with disjointed yet dynamic body elements. Above the horse, a prominent eight-spoked wheel with a central axle and a pellet-decorated rim serves as the dominant emblematic device from which this coin type derives its name. Below the horse, a cogwheel or anemone solar motif with radiating petals occupies the lower field. Pellet-in-ring ornaments are scattered near the horse's tail, consistent with the decorative vocabulary employed on the obverse. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Harlow Wheel type takes its name from the temple site at Harlow, Essex, where a significant concentration of these coins was recovered as votive deposits — deliberate ritual offerings rather than lost pocket change. The Catuvellauni occupied territory north of the Thames, and this denomination circulated during the period of Caesar's two British expeditions, though whether that military pressure influenced production levels remains unresolved in the literature.
Abstract coinage of this kind descended from Macedonian gold staters through Gaulish intermediaries, degrading through generations of copying until the original imagery became purely geometric. By this point the abstraction was intentional, not accidental.