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We proudly
introduce the Saxilby Headband,
an entirely 'new' type of North
East Coast gold stater that you
haven't seen before (unless
you've been reading the right
numismatic journals and treasure
magazines, where it has been
widely reported). It's brilliant
Extremely Fine and it's
Excessively Rare, with only one
other known (in the British
Museum). Here, very briefly, is
the story behind it.
On about 7 October 2007 metal
detectorist Geoff Rippon and
Paul Virr discovered a small
gold hoard near Saxilby,
Lincolnshire. The hoard
comprised four North East Coast
gold staters, including two
examples of this new Saxilby
Headband type, plus a gold
globule weighing 5.33 grams. In
their report to HM Coroner Adam
Daubney, Lincolnshire Finds
Liaison Officer, and Ian Leins,
Curator of Iron Age and Roman
coins at the British Museum
wrote: “Three of the gold coins
and the pellet were found ‘in
the same place’, however one
gold coin was found about 150
metres away from the main find.
Both findspots are located on
cultivated land and are
separated by a hedgerow. Despite
this, it is highly likely that
all of the coins and the pellet
formed a single group when
buried in antiquity. The
outlying coin may have been
scattered by agricultural
activity and natural processes
during the last two millennia.
The presence of the gold pellet
in the hoard may suggest an
industrial process, such as the
melting down of gold coins into
pellets ready for the striking
of new issues. Pellets of this
kind have been found with other
coin deposits, including the
well known East Leicestershire
hoard.” Dr John Sills, author of
Gaulish and Early British
Gold Coinage (Spink 2003),
says: “Every now and again a new
Celtic type appears that should
not, by rights, exist but which
turns out to be absolutely
genuine. This is one such
coin. The Corieltavian stater
series is deeply conservative
from beginning to end, but after
150 years of serious study and
well over a thousand recorded
examples here is a completely
new obverse type, one of only
two known specimens, both from
the same pair of dies. The clue
to the remarkable obverse design
is on the reverse, which die
links with a small issue of
left-facing types copied
directly from class 3 of
Gallo-Belgic E, with arcs below
a beaded exergual line. From
die wear and typology it looks
as if the new type lies at or
near the start of this
distinctive group, which itself
was struck soon after the start
of the North-East Coast Left
series. This suggests that the
novel obverse may have been
something of a failed
experiment, engraved by a die
cutter familiar with the
continental series who produced
something that was too radical
for local tastes. Further
south, in the territory of the
Trinovantes and Catuvellauni,
attempts to rationalise the
abstract head of Apollo into
geometric designs succeeded, but
in Lincolnshire it was clearly a
step too far and a degraded head
was immediately reintroduced.
The tentative nature of the
issue can be seen in the area to
the right of the wreath, where
the die cutter seems to have
engraved a row of four touching
arcs and then changed his mind
and overcut three crescents
instead. The arcs themselves
show further influence from
Gallo-Belgic E, as do the beaded
lines either side of the wreath;
the four arcs with pellet
terminals to the right of the
crescents, almost off the flan
on this coin, are probably also
inspired by the torc-like arcs
on class 3 of the uniface
series. Class 3 can be dated
with some confidence to the mid
50s BC and given the speed of
events during the Gallic Wars is
unlikely to have been copied in
Lincolnshire any later than 50
BC or so. All in all a fabulous
new type that stands in a
similar relationship to the
North-East Coast series as the
trefoil stater does to the South
Ferriby issue.”
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CCI 08.6262 |
The presence of four or five
gold neck torcs on the obverse
(seen more closely on CCI
08.6261, in the British Museum)
is unusual. They complement the
miniature gold neck torcs
beneath the beaded exergual
line. The two pellet-in-oval
symbols on the reverse may be
interpreted as snake heads, with
the pellet arcs forming their
bodies. The two pellet-in-oval
symbols may also be seen as two
eyes of a ‘hidden spirit face’,
with the exergual curve
providing a grinning mouth. To be sold by phone
bid,
Chris Rudd
March catalogue.
1.2.10 |
