Gold Stater Vertical Cloak

Issued by the Atrebates around the time of Caesar's first British expedition, these staters circulated among a tribal network that had direct — and politically fraught — contact with Rome. Commius, the Atrebatic king installed by Caesar as a client ruler, initially cooperated with the invasion before defecting and leading guerrilla resistance against Roman forces. Whether coins of this type passed through his treasury is impossible to say, but the political turbulence of the 50s BC is the immediate backdrop for this series.

The "vertical cloak" classification within Sills's die study distinguishes this type from related Atrebatic staters by a specific arrangement of the chariot field — a distinction invisible without direct comparison to reference dies.