Understandably, we were jumping up and down with excitement when we were fortunate enough to obtain this beautiful gold stater of Tasciovanos, king of the Catuvellauni. We were excited because of the superb condition of this coin - an example of such excellence that its beauty has not often been matched, let alone bettered. What we did not realise at the point of purchase was that only one other known specimen has been struck from this pair of dies; in other words, this is an excessively rare die combination - a nice bonus on top of the stater's stunning eye appeal. Rainer Kretz, who knows more about this series of coins than anyone else on the planet, states: "This is a superb example of a RICON stater struck almost centrally on a lovely round flan. It was produced late in the series when the top part of the legend had progressed from TASCIOV to TASCIO and finally TASCI. This particular obverse is here associated with my Rev. Type IV, which is distinguished by a lack of motifs around the horseman with only the stylised wheel remaining below. Remarkably only one other stater is recorded from this particular die combination (H10), which is in the British Museum (BMC 1635).... RICON staters rarely come much better than this!" Chris Rudd March list.                         29.1.07