17 - Kidney Head - The TCx3 Collection

Unique ID: 17

Technical details

DataDescriptionProvenanceReferences

Denomination	Quarter Stater	Metal	Gold
Area	Belgic Gaul	Region	Vermandois
Issuing Authority	Viromandui	Issuer	Unknown
Weight	1.63g	Diameter	9mm
Rarity	Rare (31 to 50)	Date	103 BC to 58 BC (see note about dating)

Obverse Legend	No Legend
Reverse Legend	No Legend
Obverse Description	The obverse shows a boat with two figures. The obverse is sometimes rotated 180 degrees and described as a stylised animal (normally a boar but sometimes a wolf), but the arguments for this are unconvincing and the text required to describe the design as a boar or other abstract animal becomes increasingly convoluted. A possible interpretation of the boat and its passengers was presented by Daphne Nash Briggs in "Reading the images on lron-Age coins: I. the sun-boat and its passengers".
Reverse Description	The reverse features a large solid head facing left. This is normally described as a “solid kidney shape”. The head’s nose is prominent, but only traces of the lips remain.

Bt. Chris Rudd Liz’s List 91, number 7 (2017)

Found Storrington, West Sussex

Sills 2003	Sills 445 – 446. GB-Cd
DT	DT 262. Au Profile Luniforme
Scheers	Scheers Series 14. Scheers Series 14

The Kidney Head quarter staters are a bit of an enigma. The obverse uses the standard Two Men in a Boat motif used by all the GB-C quarter staters, but the reverse shows a head which is not normally seen on the reverse of a coin (the only other quarter stater I know of with a head on the reverse is ABC 1076, the British “Tincomarus Medusa”).

Their weight suggests that they circulated at the same time as CB-Ca Class 3 to 6 staters which means they were likely minted to pay for the Cimbric wars, and as expected, they are found scattered all over Belgic Gaul and the South East of England. A small number of find spots concentrated in the upper Somme Valley suggests they were minted by the Vermandois tribe, who were a neighbour of the Ambiani.