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Commios Ladder Head. Wheel Type. Regini & Atrebates. c.50-25 BC. Celtic silver unit. 10mm. 1.11g.
1/2
Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot
Norwich, Norfolk
Description
Commios Ladder Head. Wheel Type. c.50-25 BC. Silver unit. 10mm. 1.11g. Moon head left, lentoid eye, ladder-like hair, ring and small ?animal behind./ Horse left, wheel above, double ring in front, uncertain ?animal below. ABC 1034, VA 355-5, BMC 758, S 69. Near EF, sharply struck in bright silver, super head with long ladder hair. VERY RARE
The bold designs for Commios’ silver units were eminently practical: they made his dies easy to replicate, robust enough to withstand heavy use, and broad enough to ensure good impressions even when minting was intense. From our point of view, of course, this means that we never see the entire design on any one coin. This handsome coin gives a clear view of the outer right field of the obverse design, whilst omitting most of the phallic face usually seen on its left. However, this happenstance reveals something unexpected that helps with the Celestial hooked object behind the head and below the horse on the reverse. We already knew that Commios’ lunar goddess, whispering with a phallic face, must be promising fertility and future wealth. But why that oddly lentoid eye, and swelling cheek, and bulbous chin? Rotate this coin by 90 degrees and you can’t help seeing a sheep: that is why. This clever design merges the goddess's own image with her most potent otherworldly companion, the two-headed horned serpent: it’s yet another graphic version of the powerful Great Queen (see Lot 7). Now we can see her nose as a ram’s schematic horn; her ladder hair that extends into lunar crescents becomes the serpent's segmented body; and the phallic face becomes a frontal view of the serpent’s other head, complete with long ribbed horns on some engravings.
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Commios Ladder Head. Wheel Type. c.50-25 BC. Silver unit. 10mm. 1.11g. Moon head left, lentoid eye, ladder-like hair, ring and small ?animal behind./ Horse left, wheel above, double ring in front, uncertain ?animal below. ABC 1034, VA 355-5, BMC 758, S 69. Near EF, sharply struck in bright silver, super head with long ladder hair. VERY RARE
The bold designs for Commios’ silver units were eminently practical: they made his dies easy to replicate, robust enough to withstand heavy use, and broad enough to ensure good impressions even when minting was intense. From our point of view, of course, this means that we never see the entire design on any one coin. This handsome coin gives a clear view of the outer right field of the obverse design, whilst omitting most of the phallic face usually seen on its left. However, this happenstance reveals something unexpected that helps with the Celestial hooked object behind the head and below the horse on the reverse. We already knew that Commios’ lunar goddess, whispering with a phallic face, must be promising fertility and future wealth. But why that oddly lentoid eye, and swelling cheek, and bulbous chin? Rotate this coin by 90 degrees and you can’t help seeing a sheep: that is why. This clever design merges the goddess's own image with her most potent otherworldly companion, the two-headed horned serpent: it’s yet another graphic version of the powerful Great Queen (see Lot 7). Now we can see her nose as a ram’s schematic horn; her ladder hair that extends into lunar crescents becomes the serpent's segmented body; and the phallic face becomes a frontal view of the serpent’s other head, complete with long ribbed horns on some engravings.
Chris Rudd Auction 175
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PO Box 1500
Norwich
Norfolk
NR10 5WS
United Kingdom
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