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Potin Unit Curved Bull / Holman B5
| Issuer | Cantii tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 115 BC - 100 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | 3 o`clock ↑→ |
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| Obverse description | Highly schematised and degenerate Celtic head facing left (or right on certain die varieties), rendered in the crude, abstract idiom characteristic of late Cantian cast potin coinage. The facial profile is indicated by a bold curved line, with a circular or oval element representing the eye prominently placed in the upper field. A neck line is present on some die varieties (B5/1-1, B5/1-3) and absent on others (B5/1-2); similarly, the lower crescent of the profile is consistently absent across Group B5. The design is entirely uninscribed, executed without a border, and reflects the progressive abstraction of the Thurrock-type prototype through successive die generations. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Highly stylised and almost unrecognisable representation of a bull, the design having undergone extreme degeneration from its Massaliot prototype. Depending on die variety, the bull faces left or right: on B5/1 varieties the animal faces left and is reduced to a curved dorsal line with vestigial leg elements below (one or two vertical strokes), while on B5/2-1 and B5/4-1 the bull faces right in similarly degenerate form. On variety B5/1-3, the body is rendered as a single curve with two vertical lines beneath and a forked head, the tail represented as a detached line. The entire composition is uninscribed and borderless, cast rather than struck, with the imagery approaching pure abstraction. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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