Beschreibung:

CELTIC IRON AGE COINS - CORIOSOLITES - SWAN'S NECK AND BANNER SILVER QUARTER STATER 40-10 BC Obv: Armorican-style head right with three large hair-locks, slit eye and scroll issuing from mouth. Rev: fantastic horse right with bulbous chest, sinuous 'swan's neck', traces of lash above with X in square banner before, uncertain motif below. 1.44 grams. Very fine/near extremely fine. Extremely rare; unpublished in major catalogues. Provenance The Brodie Hall, Kent, UK collection; acquired Chris Rudd (with envelope and ticket); ex Cotswold collection. Published Chris Rudd, List 115, number 4 (this coin). Literature LT -; DT -; de Jersey -; Scheers -; cf. LT J.26; cf. DT 2343; cf. Deperyot VIII, 183, 185. Footnotes Chris Rudd notes: 'This seems to be a miniature version of a de Jersey class 4 stater, possibly with a boar below and certainly with a banner before the horse. The big difference is the horse's neck which is represented by a large double scroll (or are these meant to be reins?). Commenting on these excessively rare quarter staters Dr Philip de Jersey says: "It is apparent that these were small-scale, extremely localised issues, with the same type rarely known from more than a couple of sites. The sites on which most have been found are predominantly ritual locations, notably fana and for that reason it is difficulty to accept Gruel and Taccoën's suggestion that the coins are 'un element indispensable à une monétarisation réelle des échanges commerciaux'. It is far more likely that the function of these coins was intimately bound up with the site itself, perhaps as a special form offering, since they do not generally appear in the contexts one would expect if they were really evidence of monetarisation. The