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Silver Unit - Belgae Basingstoke Stag

Issuer Atrebates and Regini tribes (Celtic Britain)
Year 55 BC - 45 BC
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Diameter 14 mm
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Obverse description A stag or goat depicted in left profile with its head turned back over its body, rendered in the characteristic abstract Celtic style. The animal's prominent horns are rendered with a distinctive cabled or twisted treatment, conveying a stylized decorative quality typical of Late Iron Age British coinage. The body is rendered with fluid, curvilinear forms, with anatomical elements dissolved into ornamental pellets and lentoid motifs consistent with Belgic artistic convention. The flan is irregular and slightly spread at the edges, as is typical of hammered Celtic silver units of this period. No legend or inscription appears in the field.
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Reverse description A horse moving to the left, depicted in the highly stylised abstract manner characteristic of Belgic Celtic coinage of southern Britain. The horse displays notably flared nostrils, rendered with exaggerated curvilinear forms, while the body is broken into component decorative elements following the conventions of the Atrebatic artistic tradition. Beneath the horse, a floral or rayed solar motif occupies the lower field, composed of concentric or radiating circular elements suggestive of a stylised sun or wheel symbol. Additional pellets and annular ornaments are scattered across the field. The reverse is uninscribed, with no legend present.
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Additional information

The Atrebates occupied a territory centered roughly on modern Berkshire and Hampshire, and their coinage developed under direct pressure from Caesar's Gallic campaigns — the first Roman incursion into Britain in 55 BC almost certainly disrupted tribal minting patterns across the south. The "Basingstoke Stag" is a regional classification tied to find-spot concentration around the Basingstoke area, suggesting highly localized production or distribution rather than a broadly circulating tribal currency.

ABC 905 is among the smaller denomination silver units in the Atrebatic sequence, struck before the better-documented dynastic coinage that would later bear named rulers like Tincomarus and Eppillus.

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