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Gold 1/4 Stater Irstead Trefoil
| Issuer | Iceni tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 15 BC - 20 AD |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | ABC#1474 , Van Arsdell#629 , Sp#430 , BMC Iron#3436 |
| Obverse description | Geometric design featuring a latticed or cross-hatched square motif flanked by two opposed crescents, their horns pointing inward. A projecting branch-like element, rendered in a stylised Celtic manner, extends from above and below the central composition. The field is unlettered, consistent with pre-Roman Celtic coinage conventions of the Iceni territory. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A stylised Celtic horse striding to the right, rendered in the characteristic abstracted Icenian manner with an open, disjointed head and pellet eye. A prominent trefoil motif occupies the field above the horse. Beneath the horse, a pellet-in-ring device is visible, a recurring symbol on Icenian quarter staters. The flan is irregular and the overall execution is typical of late Iron Age hammered gold coinage from East Anglia. |
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| Additional information |
The Iceni occupied what is now Norfolk and Suffolk, and their coinage — produced without a mint in any urban sense — was likely struck by itinerant craftsmen serving tribal leadership. The Irstead Trefoil type takes its name from the Norfolk parish where a significant concentration of examples has been found, almost certainly reflecting a discrete area of tribal activity or exchange rather than random loss.
Caesar's expeditions of 55–54 BC had already brought British tribes into Rome's economic orbit decades before this type was struck, and the Iceni's gold coinage partly reflects that contact — progressively abstract designs derived from earlier Gallo-Belgic prototypes filtering through generations of local reinterpretation.