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!
Stater Ornamented Type
| Issuer | Cantii tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 50 BC - 45 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | 15 mm |
| 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 | Uninscribed and entirely plain, retaining no figural or decorative design elements whatsoever. The flan presents a smooth, convex surface characteristic of the Celtic hammered stater tradition, representing a highly abstracted and ultimately vestigial obverse derived from the laureate head of Apollo found on the Macedonian prototype staters of Philip II. No legend, inscription, or device is present in the field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A stylised Celtic horse depicted in left profile, rendered in the characteristic La Tène abstract manner with exaggerated, flared nostrils. Above the horse, a distinctive pellet-and-ellipse motif is flanked by curved appendages resembling wings, a hallmark decorative element of the Cantian series. Below the horse, a muzzle triad composed of rings and linear elements forms an abstract ornamental pattern. The field is otherwise unadorned and carries no legend or inscription. The overall composition reflects the progressive geometric abstraction typical of late Iron Age British coinage. |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Cantii occupied the southeast corner of Britain — roughly modern Kent — and were among the tribes Caesar encountered directly during his second expedition in 54 BC. This stater type postdates that contact, and the increasingly abstract style reflects not artistic decline but a deliberate regional tradition that had been diverging from continental Gaulish prototypes for generations. The Cantii issued several distinct stater varieties across a compressed timeframe, likely tied to the political fragmentation Caesar himself documented: he noted the tribe was then ruled by four separate kings simultaneously.