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Gold Stater Clacton Original
| Issuer | Trinovantes tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 60 BC - 55 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 16 mm |
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| Obverse description | Highly stylised and abstracted Celtic interpretation of a laureate head facing right, derived ultimately from the Macedonian gold stater prototype. The head is rendered in bold, deeply struck relief with sinuous curved lines representing flowing hair or a wreath, dissolving into a series of interlocking scrolls and pellet-and-arc motifs across the field. A schematic facial profile is discernible at the right, with a vestigial eye and chin indicated by angular projections. To the upper left, diagonal striations suggest a degraded cloak or chlamys element, accompanied by scattered rectangular pellets and a prominent crescent or bow-shaped motif. No inscription or legend is present; the design is entirely anepigraphic. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | ND (60 BC - 55 BC) |
| Additional information |
The Clacton type sits at a pivotal moment in British Iron Age coinage, derived through several generations of stylistic degradation from the Macedonian gold stater of Philip II, which entered Britain via Gaulish intermediaries sometime in the late second century BC. By the time this variety was struck, the original imagery had dissolved almost entirely into abstracted curves and pellets — a transformation that was artistic evolution, not incompetence. The Trinovantes, based in what is now Essex and Suffolk, were among the more politically organized tribes in pre-Roman Britain; Caesar named them explicitly in his accounts of the 54 BC invasion as a tribe that sought his protection against Catuvellauni aggression.
ABC#2326 is the "Original" subtype, distinguished from later Clacton derivatives by specific pellet arrangements that tighten the attribution considerably.