Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Silver Stater Spread Tail
| Issuer | Durotriges tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 58 BC - 45 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Stater (1) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Highly abstract and stylised representation of the head of Apollo facing right, derived from Macedonian prototype coinage. The design is rendered in characteristic Durotrigan style with the wreath reduced to schematic leaf forms arranged above the head, a draped cloak indicated by curved lines, and lunate crescent motifs flanking the central design. The field is otherwise plain, with all naturalistic features dissolved into abstract Celtic decorative elements. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (58 BC - 45 BC) |
| Additional information |
The Durotriges, occupying what is now Dorset and parts of Somerset, produced some of the most visually degraded coinage in the Celtic world — deliberately so. Their silver staters underwent a systematic debasement over generations, moving from high-grade silver toward billon and eventually bronze, mirroring a tribal economy under increasing pressure from both internal fragmentation and the disruption of cross-Channel trade networks following Caesar's Gallic campaigns. The "Spread Tail" variety sits at a specific point in this debasement sequence, still retaining meaningful silver content before the series deteriorated further.
The Durotriges never adopted a centralized mint structure. Dies were cut locally, which accounts for the considerable variation collectors encounter across even a single sub-type.