Details

LOT 1294

Celtic Iron Age Coins - Gallo Belgic - Ambiani - Gold 'Defaced Die' Quarter Stater

150-50 BC, Sills class 1b, Scheers class IIa-b. Obv: random straight lines intersecting across the flan. Rev: horse left with 'lyre' below and crossed lines above. About very fine. Rare.(1.83 grams.).

Literature

S. - (but see S. 4 for a stater of same general type); Sills 345-347 (different dies); Delestreé DT95 variant; LT 8697; ABC 37 variant.

Footnotes

These rarely seen and enigmatic pieces have been discussed by numismatists who have commented upon there being no obvious undertype that would have been 'defaced' by the lines criss-crossing the obverse; the reason for the treatment of the obverse seems lost in history; Sills illustrates several dies and their line patterns (see pp.171-173) but this coin does not match any of those published so the dies may be unrecorded.