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Gold 1/4 Stater Little Wolf

Issuer Iceni tribe (Celtic Britain)
Year 15 BC - 20 AD
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Diameter 9 mm
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Obverse description Highly stylised Celtic design depicting two schematic human figures rendered in abstracted form within a boat-like motif, executed in the characteristic curvilinear tradition of Late Iron Age British coinage. The composition is arranged across the flan with the figures reduced to geometric and linear elements, reflecting the Icenian artistic convention of abstract derivation from earlier Gallo-Belgic prototypes. The field is plain, devoid of inscription or legend, consistent with pre-Roman Icenian coinage. The design is confined within the irregular, naturally flan-shaped border typical of hammered Celtic quarter staters.
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Reverse description A stylised wolf depicted in right profile with jaws open and snapping toward a crescent motif, rendered in the bold, abstracted curvilinear style characteristic of Icenian coinage. A crescent and pellet device appears above the wolf, while an oval or ring symbol is positioned in the field to the front of the animal. The composition fills the irregular flan with confident, schematic lines, the wolf's mane suggested by hatched or striated rendering along the neck and dorsal line. The field is otherwise plain, with no inscription or legend present.
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Additional information

The Iceni occupied what is now Norfolk and parts of Suffolk, and their coinage — including fractional staters like this — circulated in a region that would become infamous after 60 AD when Boudica led her revolt against Roman administration. Whether pieces like this survived that upheaval in hoards buried during the destruction is an open question; the Snettisham and Ken Hill hoards have demonstrated that the Iceni buried metal wealth with some regularity well before the revolt.

The "Little Wolf" attribution in the ABC series groups this type by stylistic characteristics rather than any named ruler, reflecting how poorly documented Iceni dynastic chronology remains compared to the Catuvellauni to the south.

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