East Wiltshire c.50-35 BC Three Wheels Gold Quarter Stater *Extremely Rare*

East Wiltshire c.50-35 BC Three Wheels Gold Quarter Stater

Extremely Rare, 16 known

ABC 2093, 18mm, 4.50g

A pleasing example with much character.

Obverse

Abstracted head of Apollo right (with inside end of each leaf pointing downwards above the hairbar, and upwards below the hairbar, the upper and lower parts at a marked angle to each other). Hairbar (spike) is decorated with three pellet-in-ring motifs, with one arc below a ringed pellet at the end. Eight-spoked wheel in place of a cloak.

Reverse

Segmented horse right, with no mane and triple tail with pellet terminals. Collar around horse’s neck, strap around horse’s belly. Eight-spoked wheel with axle above with ringed pellets around. Wheel below.

View Video Here

Comments

 

Provenance

This coin is from The London Collection of Ancient British Coins. For more information click here: The London Collection – Silbury Coins : Silbury Coins.

C Rudd FPL 108, no 40 (2009). Found Latchmere Green, Silchester, Hants     VA224-1

This coin comes with a previous label.

 

‘East Wiltshire’ Tribe

Although Dobunnic coinage holds sway over much of Wiltshire, the central and eastern parts of the county appear to have been home to a different coin-issuing group for at least part of the late 1st century BC. While Derek Allen first noted the possibility of this polity’s existence in 1971, only as a consequence of the important work done by archaeologist Paul Robinson several years later (published in 1977 within BNJ 47) was this confirmed from a numismatic perspective. Previously, these coins had been féted as irregular issues of the Dobunni, a view held by both Allen and the collector R.P. Mack.

Important from a chronological perspective is the fact that no coins of the East Wiltshire group are inscribed, a feature which suggests they probably date to the end of the 1st century BC.