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Gold Stater Zigzag Bars
| Issuer | Atrebates and Regini tribes (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 55 BC - 45 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 6.0 g |
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| Obverse description | Highly stylised, abstracted head of Apollo facing right in the Celtic artistic tradition. A curved wreath encircles the face, with the inner tip of each leaf pointing downward and six to nine leaves visible on the right-hand side below the hairbar. Standing hair curls appear behind the head, while a spike or hairbar with a pellet terminal and one additional pellet terminates in two conjoined arcs. Three linear crescents appear to the right, with either four chevron lines or two bold zigzag bars positioned between the wreath and the rearmost linear crescent, which serves as the stylised ear; a small anchor motif is also present between the wreath and the crescents. Below the crescents, a three-line cloak is rendered, surmounted by a pellet bearing three curved radiating spikes. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Atrebates of southern Britain were under direct pressure from Caesar's Gallic campaigns during this decade — the tribal leader Commius, once Caesar's ally and envoy to Britain, had by the late 50s BC turned against Rome following a failed assassination attempt against him. Coins attributed to his tribe from this period circulated in a political environment of acute instability, with loyalties shifting between accommodation and outright resistance.
Sills 209 places this type within a sequence that predates the introduction of inscribed coinage among the Atrebates, making ruler attribution impossible on numismatic grounds alone.