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Stater with hippophorus Genie
| Issuer | Namnetes |
|---|---|
| Year | 70 BC - 50 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A human-headed horse (hippophorus) galloping to the right, rendered in the distinctive Armorican Celtic style with abstracted anatomical forms. Above the horse, a rider is depicted holding the reins in the right hand with the left arm raised. Below the horse's body, the upper torso of a male figure is shown with both arms outstretched, grasping one hindleg and one foreleg of the horse simultaneously — a characteristic motif associated with Namnetes coinage of the hippophorus type. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Namnetes occupied the territory around the mouth of the Loire — roughly modern Loire-Atlantique — and their gold staters represent one of the westernmost expressions of the Gaulish coinage tradition derived ultimately from the Philip II Macedonian prototype. By the first century BC, that original design had undergone so many generations of stylistic abstraction that the imagery bears almost no resemblance to its source. The hippocamp-riding figure, the so-called hippophorus genie, is a distinctly Armorican development with no direct parallel in continental Gaulish issues.
DT#2185 corresponds to a relatively well-defined die group. The Namnetes were absorbed into the Roman provincial system following Caesar's Gallic campaigns, and gold coinage of this type ceased production shortly thereafter.