Here is a most unusual silver unit of the Catuvellauni known as Duck Helmet. It shows a female wearing a crested helmet with a duck's head mounted on the front of it and with what might be a small duck placed sideways in front of her nose. Professor Miranda Aldhouse-Green writes: 'Diadorus Siculus refers to the wearing of horned or animal-crested helmets by the Celts. This increased the men's stature and made them appear more fearsome to the enemy.' Rainer Kretz has identified the duck's head on the helmet of this coin as probably indicative of the common mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). Dr Anne Ross, author of Pagan Celtic Britain, says: 'I suggest that this coin depicts Brigid, helmeted as would befit Minerva, thus demonstrating a certain conflation with the classical deity.' An important coin of great mythological and ornithological interest. Excessively rare. Chris Rudd March list.                                                                                                         6.02.06