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On this sunny May morning it
gives us great pleasure to
introduce you to a stunning
sunny stater you haven't seen
before - a new type, apparently
unrecorded and unpublished,
called the Selsey Corded-V Type.
It's extremely fine, struck on a
big golden flan, with every part
of the design standing out in
high relief. It's an exciting
new version of an classic
ancient British gold stater, in
mint-state condition. It's of
the highest rarity and possibly
unique (well we've never seen
another like it and we can find
no record of anyone else seeing
one either). So what makes this
stater so different and so
scarce? There are some
distinctive differences which
set this Selsey Corded-V Type
gold stater apart from the
standard Selsey stater types,
both biface and uniface –
differences which may not be
apparent at first glance, but
which are nonetheless important
in positioning this ‘newcomer’
within the series. The first is
the weight of the Corded-V Type:
at 6.05 grams it is uncommonly
heavy, which suggests that it
comes near the start of the
series (of the 33 ‘Remi’ Type
staters listed by Hobbs only one
weighs as much as 6.05 grams).
Secondly, there are two large
pellets beyond the hair-locks at
11 o’clock; these may be on a
few other Selsey staters (see
BMC 452), but I’ve not seen them
so clearly revealed before.
Thirdly, the line under the
horse isn’t the usual wiggly
serpentine line – it’s a
corded line. And fourthly –
the line isn’t in the familiar
crescent form – it’s in a
V-shape. So, all in all, a
somewhat unexpected discovery.
It would be nice to be able to
tell you that we know precisely
where and when this rather
special Selsey stater was found,
but we can’t unfortunately. All
the vendor could tell us was
that it formerly belonged to his
father, that “he was a gardener
by profession and worked all
over the Thames valley, Kent and
Yorkshire”, that “it’s likely he
came across it that way” and
that he died in 1987. The deep
gold toning suggests that the
coin has been out of the ground
a long time. So our best guess
would be that it was found in
somebody’s garden, possibly in
the Thames valley, perhaps
sometime between the 1950s and
1980s. There is no doubt
whatsoever about its
authenticity.
Chris Rudd July list.
24.5.10 |
