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Cunobelinus Spiky Bearded. Cat. & Trinovantes. c.AD8-41. Celtic silver unit. 11-13mm. 1.20g.
1/2
Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot
Norwich, Norfolk
Description
Cunobelinus Spiky Bearded. c.AD8-41. Silver unit. 11-13mm. 1.20g. Head left with pointed beard and swept-back hair, CAM in front, VL behind./ Seated Victory right, arm raised holding bowl, ringed-pellet in front, CVNO in exergue. ABC 2855 var., VA 2045 var., BMC 1863-65 var., S 303 var. Good VF, lightly toned silver, magnificent head, full CAMVL, boldly struck seated figure. EXCESSIVELY RARE only four others recorded.
The head is undoubtedly copied from the denarius of L.Hostilius Saserna featuring a Gallic captive (RCV 418, Crawford 448/2e). This is a fascinating situation. This is Cunobelin’s first portrait coin in silver and probably the first image he has had copied from a Roman denarius; and he decided to select an obviously Celtic head, not a Roman head like the fifteen other heads he later copied. Was this a deliberate choice? Yes, almost certainly. There is no mistaking the overtly Celtic feature of noble bearded head; the swept-back spiky hair, washed in lime-water to stiffen and bleach it, is a particularly Celtic characteristic, mentioned by classical authors. Or, might the head actually be supposed to represent the god Camulos himself? Gaulish/British Camulos matches quite well with a Roman Mars who was patron and ancestor of the Roman people as well as being a war god; and the unusual under-chin goatee beard in this image may be a nudge to think of a deity not of a person (Cuno put his own name under Victory). The reverse would have been copied from a gemstone. The obverse, labelled CAMVL, paired with the peaceful, seated victory reverse, must have been designed to celebrate Cunobelin’s command of Camulodunon. We can guess how triumphant he felt, but we have every reason to think his victory was a diplomatic achievement, not victory after a bloodbath.
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Cunobelinus Spiky Bearded. c.AD8-41. Silver unit. 11-13mm. 1.20g. Head left with pointed beard and swept-back hair, CAM in front, VL behind./ Seated Victory right, arm raised holding bowl, ringed-pellet in front, CVNO in exergue. ABC 2855 var., VA 2045 var., BMC 1863-65 var., S 303 var. Good VF, lightly toned silver, magnificent head, full CAMVL, boldly struck seated figure. EXCESSIVELY RARE only four others recorded.
The head is undoubtedly copied from the denarius of L.Hostilius Saserna featuring a Gallic captive (RCV 418, Crawford 448/2e). This is a fascinating situation. This is Cunobelin’s first portrait coin in silver and probably the first image he has had copied from a Roman denarius; and he decided to select an obviously Celtic head, not a Roman head like the fifteen other heads he later copied. Was this a deliberate choice? Yes, almost certainly. There is no mistaking the overtly Celtic feature of noble bearded head; the swept-back spiky hair, washed in lime-water to stiffen and bleach it, is a particularly Celtic characteristic, mentioned by classical authors. Or, might the head actually be supposed to represent the god Camulos himself? Gaulish/British Camulos matches quite well with a Roman Mars who was patron and ancestor of the Roman people as well as being a war god; and the unusual under-chin goatee beard in this image may be a nudge to think of a deity not of a person (Cuno put his own name under Victory). The reverse would have been copied from a gemstone. The obverse, labelled CAMVL, paired with the peaceful, seated victory reverse, must have been designed to celebrate Cunobelin’s command of Camulodunon. We can guess how triumphant he felt, but we have every reason to think his victory was a diplomatic achievement, not victory after a bloodbath.
Chris Rudd Auction 197
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