10
Hampshire Long-Spike (prev Burgan 11). Belgae. c.50-40 BC. Celtic gold quarter stater. 9mm. 1.21g.
1/2
Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot
Norwich, Norfolk
Description
Hampshire Long-Spike (previously Burgan 11).Sills Western British Qc Derivatives. c.50-40 BC. Gold quarter stater. 9mm. 1.21g. Wreath of fine leaves, wide crescent at end of hairbar./ Triple-tailed horse right, floral sun and ringed-pellets above. ABC–, VA–, BMC–, DK 267 (same dies), S–. CCI 21.0790 (this coin), PAS:HAMP-2043B1 (this coin). Near EF, good weight, beautifully ornamented, full floral sun. Found Overton, Hants, 28 November 2021. EXCESSIVELY RARE only two others recorded.
The first example of Hampshire Long-Spike sold at auction in Paris in 1989 as Burgan Lot 11. This coin and the second example were found in Hampshire, hence the new name, and all three were struck from the same pair of heavily worked dies at a time when Sussex and Hampshire were together producing more local issues than the rest of coin-producing Britain put together (Dr John Sills, Divided Kingdoms p. 240). This was a time when many aristocrats were leaving Gaul to make a fresh start in Britain. Some may have favoured Reginian Sussex (see notes on lot 9) but Belgae seem to have focused especially on Hampshire, where lands either side of the river Test, readily accessed from Southampton Water, saw intensive early activity: this coin, of good early weight, was found well inland, near its source. These people, only known to us from their coinage, engaged some experienced engravers: Long Spike's dies seem cut by the same hand as Reginian ABC 512 Bognor cogwheel: same horse with no mane, but there with Reginian cogwheel insignia. Other Regini (e.g. ABC 500-512, 554, 560, 566-581, and 590) used the same floral sun motif that Long Spike also displays above his horse: combinations of these shared devices may well reflect political associations for otherwise undocumented enterprises. Long Spike's own personal insignia are mainly embedded in his obverse. Here, we see subtle but startling changes to the usual local format: the wreath's leaves run as if from the outside inwards, not as if out of the centre; the nice crisp cloak emblem is positioned, most exceptionally, above, not below the sun-god's face arcs, if viewed facing right like everyone else's coins; and the frontal hook of the equally conventional hair-bar has been stretched into a striking central feature that resembles the head and long beak of a wading bird – either avocet or curlew – probing the cloak, whose parallel lines now do look rather watery. Are we even meant to turn it around, to see it as curlew, making the whole design face left – which instantly puts the cloak back in its usual position below the face arcs, but contrasts Long Spike's design with that of all his neighbours? Was that its whole point: to be distinctive at sight?
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Hampshire Long-Spike (previously Burgan 11).Sills Western British Qc Derivatives. c.50-40 BC. Gold quarter stater. 9mm. 1.21g. Wreath of fine leaves, wide crescent at end of hairbar./ Triple-tailed horse right, floral sun and ringed-pellets above. ABC–, VA–, BMC–, DK 267 (same dies), S–. CCI 21.0790 (this coin), PAS:HAMP-2043B1 (this coin). Near EF, good weight, beautifully ornamented, full floral sun. Found Overton, Hants, 28 November 2021. EXCESSIVELY RARE only two others recorded.
The first example of Hampshire Long-Spike sold at auction in Paris in 1989 as Burgan Lot 11. This coin and the second example were found in Hampshire, hence the new name, and all three were struck from the same pair of heavily worked dies at a time when Sussex and Hampshire were together producing more local issues than the rest of coin-producing Britain put together (Dr John Sills, Divided Kingdoms p. 240). This was a time when many aristocrats were leaving Gaul to make a fresh start in Britain. Some may have favoured Reginian Sussex (see notes on lot 9) but Belgae seem to have focused especially on Hampshire, where lands either side of the river Test, readily accessed from Southampton Water, saw intensive early activity: this coin, of good early weight, was found well inland, near its source. These people, only known to us from their coinage, engaged some experienced engravers: Long Spike's dies seem cut by the same hand as Reginian ABC 512 Bognor cogwheel: same horse with no mane, but there with Reginian cogwheel insignia. Other Regini (e.g. ABC 500-512, 554, 560, 566-581, and 590) used the same floral sun motif that Long Spike also displays above his horse: combinations of these shared devices may well reflect political associations for otherwise undocumented enterprises. Long Spike's own personal insignia are mainly embedded in his obverse. Here, we see subtle but startling changes to the usual local format: the wreath's leaves run as if from the outside inwards, not as if out of the centre; the nice crisp cloak emblem is positioned, most exceptionally, above, not below the sun-god's face arcs, if viewed facing right like everyone else's coins; and the frontal hook of the equally conventional hair-bar has been stretched into a striking central feature that resembles the head and long beak of a wading bird – either avocet or curlew – probing the cloak, whose parallel lines now do look rather watery. Are we even meant to turn it around, to see it as curlew, making the whole design face left – which instantly puts the cloak back in its usual position below the face arcs, but contrasts Long Spike's design with that of all his neighbours? Was that its whole point: to be distinctive at sight?
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