Catalog
| Issuer | Durotriges tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 45 BC - 40 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Highly schematized and abstracted design derived from the classical 'three men in a boat' or 'wolf and twins' motif, rendered in a characteristically crude Iron Age Celtic style. The central element is a large lunate crescent with one end squared off, from the lower arc of which hang three pendulous appendages. Above the truncated crescent, elongated spikes terminating in pellets radiate upward. A pellet rosette (daisy motif) occupies the left field. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | ND (45 BC - 40 BC) |
| Additional information |
The Durotriges occupied the southwestern peninsula of Britain — roughly modern Dorset and Somerset — and their coinage represents one of the most dramatic degradation sequences in Celtic numismatics. Originally derived from Macedonian gold staters transmitted through Gaulish intermediaries, the design collapsed over successive generations of copying until abstract dots and arcs bore almost no visual relationship to the prototype. This particular quarter stater belongs to the phase when silver content was already falling sharply, a process that would eventually produce purely base-metal issues by the time of the Roman conquest in 43 AD.