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Vepocunavos. c.AD30-40. Celtic gold stater. 21mm. 4.81g.
1/2
Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot
Aylsham, Norfolk
Description
Vepocunavos. c.AD30-40. Gold stater. 21mm. 4.81g. Inward facing wreath motif with brick-like leaves, row of three small crosses, two opposed crescents in centre, joined by bar and with beaded rosette in each cusp, dolphin-like symbol in four angles of motif./ Lunate horse left, VEPO above (VE ligate), C[NA]VOS below, pellet under head. ABC−, VA−, BMC−, S−. New type, apparently unpublished as such until last month. CCI 20.0114 (this coin). Good VF, large scyphate flan of cuprous rose-gold, well centred, boldly struck, most of inscription legible. An important stater of numismatic and historic significance. Believed to be the first of its type to be offered for public sale. Ex Jonathan Cross collection,[1] found Mansfield area of Nottingham, 2019. EXCESSIVELY RARE only two others recorded, both thought to be in private hands.
The importance of this recently discovered Vepo stater – a type we’ve never seen before – cannot be overstated. The second part of the inscription was initially difficult to decipher. However, when we compared it with the CNAVO legend on two contemporary silver units, ABC 1944 and 1947 – both with a left-leaning letter N which, in our view, implies that it contains a ligate letter V – then we realised that the full inscription was almost certainly intended to be read as Vepocunavos. This means that we now know, for the first time, the full name of the ruler who issued coins inscribed VEP, VEPO or VEPOC – a name that had been lost to history for two thousand years. The Celtic linguist, Dr Thomas Markey, confirms that Vepo- means ‘voice’ and suggests that Vepocunavos may be interpreted as ‘Vepo’s puppy grandson’ or ‘Vepo’s whelp grandson’ or similar and “thus the member of a third generation Corieltauvian dynasty.” He explains that “in Celtic *auos as ‘grandfather’ underwent a semantic shift to ‘grandson’ due to the widespread belief that the soul of the grandfather was reincarnated in the grandson… Significantly, what we have here onomastically is apparently a British Celtic colloquial use of cun- ‘dog’ as a hypocoristic [pet-name] prefix” (pers.comm. 27 February 2020). If our reading of the legend on this new Vepo stater is correct and if Dr Markey’s interpretation of Vepocunavos is also correct, we now know that his grandfather was called Vepo-, whereas previously we only knew that his father was called Cor-. We now know that
-c[o]omes is highly unlikely to have been the second part of Vepo’s name, as we speculated ten years ago in Ancient British Coins (see p.96 and our note under ABC 1869, p.97). We may now read the two names CATVS and CNAVO as a single name, Catuscunavos, and interpret it as ‘puppy grandson of Catus (the warrior).’ We may now speculate that granddad Catus minted what might be the Corieltauvi’s earliest inscribed coin, ABC 1845. We may also wonder if grandfather Vepo- issued some North East Coast staters and Boar Horse silver units and if father Cor- struck some South Ferriby staters and units. Now, with greater confidence than before, we may unite other split inscriptions on other Corieltauvian coins: ATT and AS become Attas- (perhaps Attassatios, Attasedo- or Attassu-?); AVN and COST become Auncost- (perhaps Aun[i]costicos?); ESVP and RASV become Esuprasu- (perhaps Esuprasutagus?); LAT and ISON become Latison- or Latisom- (perhaps Latisomos or Latisomullos?); TIGIR and SENO become Tigerseno[s]; VELLA and RACN become Vellarac[u]n. Most importantly, uniting these previously divided names means that we can now finally terminate Derek Allen’s long-dying idea that the Corieltauvi (he called them Coritani) had abandoned kingship and were ruled by pairs of magistrates. That’s not all. Dr Thomas Markey says Dr Roger Tomlin’s 1982 correction of Coritani to Corieltauvi is still authoritative, questions Professor John Koch’s 2006 suggestion that Corieltauvi may contain the name of the goddess Litavis, agrees that Cor- means ‘army’ and proposes that “a plausible gloss for Corieltauvi would appear to be ‘the great silent host’ of which Vepos as ‘the word, the voice’ would have been the speaker” (pers.comm. 27 February 2020). We’re grateful to him and to Dr Daphne Nash Briggs for their help with this note. The discovery of the important Vepocunavos stater has been published in Coin News, April and May 2020; The Searcher, April 2020, and other magazines worldwide (this coin). Not in ABC, Van Arsdell, BMC nor Spink.
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Vepocunavos. c.AD30-40. Gold stater. 21mm. 4.81g. Inward facing wreath motif with brick-like leaves, row of three small crosses, two opposed crescents in centre, joined by bar and with beaded rosette in each cusp, dolphin-like symbol in four angles of motif./ Lunate horse left, VEPO above (VE ligate), C[NA]VOS below, pellet under head. ABC−, VA−, BMC−, S−. New type, apparently unpublished as such until last month. CCI 20.0114 (this coin). Good VF, large scyphate flan of cuprous rose-gold, well centred, boldly struck, most of inscription legible. An important stater of numismatic and historic significance. Believed to be the first of its type to be offered for public sale. Ex Jonathan Cross collection,[1] found Mansfield area of Nottingham, 2019. EXCESSIVELY RARE only two others recorded, both thought to be in private hands.
The importance of this recently discovered Vepo stater – a type we’ve never seen before – cannot be overstated. The second part of the inscription was initially difficult to decipher. However, when we compared it with the CNAVO legend on two contemporary silver units, ABC 1944 and 1947 – both with a left-leaning letter N which, in our view, implies that it contains a ligate letter V – then we realised that the full inscription was almost certainly intended to be read as Vepocunavos. This means that we now know, for the first time, the full name of the ruler who issued coins inscribed VEP, VEPO or VEPOC – a name that had been lost to history for two thousand years. The Celtic linguist, Dr Thomas Markey, confirms that Vepo- means ‘voice’ and suggests that Vepocunavos may be interpreted as ‘Vepo’s puppy grandson’ or ‘Vepo’s whelp grandson’ or similar and “thus the member of a third generation Corieltauvian dynasty.” He explains that “in Celtic *auos as ‘grandfather’ underwent a semantic shift to ‘grandson’ due to the widespread belief that the soul of the grandfather was reincarnated in the grandson… Significantly, what we have here onomastically is apparently a British Celtic colloquial use of cun- ‘dog’ as a hypocoristic [pet-name] prefix” (pers.comm. 27 February 2020). If our reading of the legend on this new Vepo stater is correct and if Dr Markey’s interpretation of Vepocunavos is also correct, we now know that his grandfather was called Vepo-, whereas previously we only knew that his father was called Cor-. We now know that
-c[o]omes is highly unlikely to have been the second part of Vepo’s name, as we speculated ten years ago in Ancient British Coins (see p.96 and our note under ABC 1869, p.97). We may now read the two names CATVS and CNAVO as a single name, Catuscunavos, and interpret it as ‘puppy grandson of Catus (the warrior).’ We may now speculate that granddad Catus minted what might be the Corieltauvi’s earliest inscribed coin, ABC 1845. We may also wonder if grandfather Vepo- issued some North East Coast staters and Boar Horse silver units and if father Cor- struck some South Ferriby staters and units. Now, with greater confidence than before, we may unite other split inscriptions on other Corieltauvian coins: ATT and AS become Attas- (perhaps Attassatios, Attasedo- or Attassu-?); AVN and COST become Auncost- (perhaps Aun[i]costicos?); ESVP and RASV become Esuprasu- (perhaps Esuprasutagus?); LAT and ISON become Latison- or Latisom- (perhaps Latisomos or Latisomullos?); TIGIR and SENO become Tigerseno[s]; VELLA and RACN become Vellarac[u]n. Most importantly, uniting these previously divided names means that we can now finally terminate Derek Allen’s long-dying idea that the Corieltauvi (he called them Coritani) had abandoned kingship and were ruled by pairs of magistrates. That’s not all. Dr Thomas Markey says Dr Roger Tomlin’s 1982 correction of Coritani to Corieltauvi is still authoritative, questions Professor John Koch’s 2006 suggestion that Corieltauvi may contain the name of the goddess Litavis, agrees that Cor- means ‘army’ and proposes that “a plausible gloss for Corieltauvi would appear to be ‘the great silent host’ of which Vepos as ‘the word, the voice’ would have been the speaker” (pers.comm. 27 February 2020). We’re grateful to him and to Dr Daphne Nash Briggs for their help with this note. The discovery of the important Vepocunavos stater has been published in Coin News, April and May 2020; The Searcher, April 2020, and other magazines worldwide (this coin). Not in ABC, Van Arsdell, BMC nor Spink.
Chris Rudd Auction 170 - John Follows Collection Part 2
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