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Gold 1/4 Stater Horse Head Cloak
| Issuer | Atrebates and Regini tribes (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 55 BC - 45 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.24 g |
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| Obverse description | Highly stylised, abstracted Celtic design derived from a laureate head, rendered in the characteristic La Tène artistic tradition. The field is filled with a dense arrangement of raised pellets, crescents, and curved relief elements representing the disintegrated facial features and hair of the prototype, likely ultimately derived from a Macedonian gold stater obverse. No legend or inscription is present; the flan is irregular and the relief bold and deeply cut. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Stylised horse depicted in fragmented, abstracted Celtic manner occupying the central field, its body rendered through a series of curvilinear and comma-shaped relief motifs characteristic of insular Iron Age coinage. A prominent spoke-wheeled solar symbol or wheel motif appears in the lower field, a common apotropaic device on British Celtic coinage. Additional abstract ornamental elements, including pellets and crescent forms, fill the surrounding field. The flan is of irregular planchet shape with no inscription or legend. |
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| Additional information |
The Atrebates occupied territory across what is now Hampshire and Berkshire, and by the mid-first century BC were under the rule of Commios — the same Gaulish chieftain whom Caesar had used as a diplomatic envoy during his Gallic campaigns before their relationship collapsed violently. Commios fled to Britain around 50 BC, almost certainly bringing Gaulish minting traditions with him, which explains the strong continental influence visible across Atrebatic coinage of this period.
Sills 230 is a scarce quarter stater struck in high-purity gold at a moment when tribal coinages in southeast Britain were proliferating rapidly, partly driven by the need to pay warriors and reward loyalty in an increasingly unstable political climate following Caesar's expeditions of 55 and 54 BC.