Unique ID: 116
The reverse of this unique coin is a departure from the “men in a boat” series as it features a dog on the reverse rather than the standard anemone object above a crooked line. The style of the obverse suggests it’s derived from Gb-Ca2 class 5 (45), and the weight suggests it’s broadly contemporary with that. The coin is featured in “Nouvel Atlas des Monnaies Gauloises : IV, Supplément aux tomes I-II-III” by Louis-Pol Delestrée and Marcel Tache as a new class IV in 41A Series “au bateau”. This would suggest it was a Morini issue, but that’s the lazy assumption. The fact that the reverse is so different suggest another tribe minted it.
The most obvious contender is the Atrebates, who were a neighbour of the Morini. There are a number of similarities between this coin and ABC 1148 which is a later coin minted by them in Britain.
The obverse of ABC 1148 features a six pointed star with pellet terminals, which is very reminiscant of the star on the obverse of this coin. The reverse of ABC 1148 features a bounding dog with a pellet rosette below, and a beaded border around. An older coin of theirs from Gaul, the “Quart de statère en or au croissant” has an hollow crescent above the animal with three lines segmenting it into four triangular pieces. There are hints of this above the dog on this coin. The overall shape is similar, but it’s composed of pellets joined by straight lines. The GB-D “A-Type Tree” quarter stater (62) is also thought to have been minted by the Atrebates. This is one of the GB-D “au bateau” quarter staters, but with an AT monogram in place of the boat on the obverse.