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Mossop Cruciform. Belgae. c.50-40 BC. Celtic gold quarter stater. 9mm. 0.89g.
1/2
Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot
Norwich, Norfolk
Description
Mossop Cruciform. Sills Western British Qc derivatives. c.50-40 BC. Gold quarter stater. 9mm. 0.89g. Cruciform pattern of ‘horsetail’ hair-curls around central 24-spoked beaded sun-wheel (like a dandelion head), back-to-back crescents either side./ Annulate horse right, floral sun above, wheel below. ABC 797, VA –, BMC–, DK 275, S–. Edge a little uneven, otherwise Good VF, beautifully centred wheel, bonny horse. Found Alton, Winchester, 26 January 2023. EXCESSIVELY RARE only two others recorded.
West Sussex and especially Hampshire were home to a greater concentration of Belgic-inspired coinages than any other part of Britain, and the sheer variety of designs on the local issues together with the widely differing styles in which they are executed can only be explained by a concentration there of émigré Gaulish craftsmen (Dr John Sills, Divided Kingdoms pp. 740-742). With an exceptionally fine burin and steady hand, this master-engraver packed fully 24 spokes into his patron’s sun-wheel and gave his territory’s horse a flying mane of neat individual strands. They were desperately short of gold just then: this alloy was brittle, and some related issues, even perhaps by the same engraver, were overstruck to save making new flans (ABC 800, 803), but the engraving itself is superb. The dandelion sun-wheel may be the local authority’s own emblem; other, collective, markers include the prominent 3-strand horse-tail or solar hair-curl devices and the one-strand crescent-lyres also seen on ABC 800 and 803 - here with the internal decoration typical of this exuberant craftsman. The whole shield-like obverse composition turns, like the Sun and the wheel of Fortune. Named after Henry Mossop’s example, the first known, this is one of the rarest of British quarter staters and, with its dandelion-like sun-wheel, one of the most dramatically designed. The first we’ve had and the only one offered for public sale since 2007.
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Mossop Cruciform. Sills Western British Qc derivatives. c.50-40 BC. Gold quarter stater. 9mm. 0.89g. Cruciform pattern of ‘horsetail’ hair-curls around central 24-spoked beaded sun-wheel (like a dandelion head), back-to-back crescents either side./ Annulate horse right, floral sun above, wheel below. ABC 797, VA –, BMC–, DK 275, S–. Edge a little uneven, otherwise Good VF, beautifully centred wheel, bonny horse. Found Alton, Winchester, 26 January 2023. EXCESSIVELY RARE only two others recorded.
West Sussex and especially Hampshire were home to a greater concentration of Belgic-inspired coinages than any other part of Britain, and the sheer variety of designs on the local issues together with the widely differing styles in which they are executed can only be explained by a concentration there of émigré Gaulish craftsmen (Dr John Sills, Divided Kingdoms pp. 740-742). With an exceptionally fine burin and steady hand, this master-engraver packed fully 24 spokes into his patron’s sun-wheel and gave his territory’s horse a flying mane of neat individual strands. They were desperately short of gold just then: this alloy was brittle, and some related issues, even perhaps by the same engraver, were overstruck to save making new flans (ABC 800, 803), but the engraving itself is superb. The dandelion sun-wheel may be the local authority’s own emblem; other, collective, markers include the prominent 3-strand horse-tail or solar hair-curl devices and the one-strand crescent-lyres also seen on ABC 800 and 803 - here with the internal decoration typical of this exuberant craftsman. The whole shield-like obverse composition turns, like the Sun and the wheel of Fortune. Named after Henry Mossop’s example, the first known, this is one of the rarest of British quarter staters and, with its dandelion-like sun-wheel, one of the most dramatically designed. The first we’ve had and the only one offered for public sale since 2007.
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