|
This
beautiful Dubnovellaunos Branch
gold stater of the Trinovantes
is an important coin, published
in British Numismatic Journal
2008, p.7, fig.4b (this coin).
It is important because it
clearly reveals two early
examples of the early British
letter A with a diagonal bar
(not horizontal as in the Latin
letter A). Rainer Kretz says:
"This interesting and rarely
offered Dubnovellaunos stater
was struck early on in the
production of this extremely
varied and long-lasting series.
It belongs to my Letter A type,
which is characterized by the
first letter A in the legend and
the more spidery style of horse,
the head of which is often
griffin-like in appearance.
Later in the series the letter A
changes to II (an earlier
version of the letter E), before
finally becoming an E proper.
This particular reverse is
unusual in that it features the
rulers name in its (at that
time) correct spelling. Many of
its sister dies have either
blundered legends or one or two
of the letters missing. The coin
was struck from my dies G10 and
is listed under its CCI number
of 03.1386 on page 25 of my
study ‘The Trinovantian
Staters of Dubnovellaunos’,
BNJ 78 (2008). There are just
three coins known from this
particular die combination,
although coins featuring this
obverse die are more common.” Chris Rudd
January catalogue.
9.11.09 |
