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As you can see, you are going to
be truly spoilt for choice with
our March catalogue - full of
golden opportunities, full of
superb gold staters and
quarters, any one of which would
be the crowning glory in
someone else's catalogue. Not
to mention some great silver
rarities as well. This week we
draw your attention to this
magnificent Anted Rig gold
stater of the Dobunni tribe.
We've had a few of these in the
past. This has to be one of the
prettiest we've seen, with
satin-smooth surfaces and
beautifully struck. This scarce
Anted Rig gold stater displays
the Dobunnic ‘tree of life’
emblem clearly and centrally and
without the surrounding
scratches and scuff marks that
one normally encounters on gold
staters with this amount of
plain field. It is the startling
simplicity of this design that
differentiates it from the vast
majority of British and Gaulish
gold staters. It also suggests
that the ‘tree of life’ symbol
must have been very important to
this ‘dynasty’ of seven Dobunnic
rulers: A.N.Other (VA 1005),
Corio, Comux, Catti, Inamn,
Anted and Eisu. They all used
the ‘tree of life’ emblem on
their gold staters, but that
doesn’t necessarily mean that
they belonged to the same royal
family (they may have done) or
that they all ruled
consecutively. Indeed there is
evidence that there were at
least two different parts of the
tribe – north and south – and
that each part may have had its
own king. Yes, they really did
see themselves as ‘kings’ – not
just chiefs – as indicated by
the title rigu ‘king’
that occurs on this coin. To be
sold in
Chris Rudd
March catalogue.
8.2.10 |
