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Silver Unit - Belgae Hayling Moon Head
| Issuer | Atrebates and Regini tribes (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 55 BC - 45 BC |
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| Value | Silver Unit |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Stylised Celtic head facing right, rendered in the characteristic La Tène artistic tradition. The hair is depicted as ten bold, voluminous crescent-shaped locks radiating around the cranium, lending the effigy a distinctly abstract and decorative quality. Facial features are summarily indicated, with a rounded mass representing the head filling the flan. The design fills the irregular flan almost entirely, with no legend or inscription in the field. The treatment of the hair crescents is the defining typological feature of this Hayling Moon Head series. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A stylised horse prancing to the right, rendered in a highly schematic Celtic manner with attenuated, elongated stick-form legs. Below the horse, a crude lyre-shaped symbol occupies the lower field, a motif characteristic of the Atrebatic coinage tradition. A spoked wheel or solar disc symbol is placed above the horse in the upper field. Pellets and abstract geometric devices are scattered around the field as supplementary decorative elements. The entire composition is typical of the abstract, non-representational artistic conventions employed on southern British Celtic silver coinage of this period. |
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| Additional information |
The Atrebates occupied a territory stretching across what is now Hampshire, Berkshire, and West Sussex, and their coinage developed under direct pressure from Caesar's Gallic campaigns. The tribal name itself appears in Caesar's accounts of the 54 BC invasion — Commios, the Atrebatic king, served initially as a Roman envoy before switching allegiance. This coin likely circulated during exactly that political rupture.
The "Hayling" designation ties this type to find concentrations around Hayling Island, a known ritual site, suggesting at least some of these units entered the ground as votive deposits rather than through loss in commerce.