29 - Insular Cf2 - The TCx3 Collection

Unique ID: 29

Technical details

DataDescriptionProvenanceReferences

Denomination	Quarter Stater	Metal	Gold
Area	Britain	Region	Southern
Issuing Authority	Regini	Issuer	Unknown
Weight	1.44g	Diameter	11mm
Rarity	Extremely Rare (6 to 15)	Date	70 BC to 55 BC (see note about dating)

Obverse Legend	No Legend
Reverse Legend	No Legend
Obverse Description	The obverse shows a boat with two figures. A pellet rosette appears to the left. 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	A crooked line runs horizontally, with a squat tree like object above. This is the “anemone” from the GB-Ca2 quarters, but squashed vertically. Five lines radiate from the top and right hand side. Below the line is the standard Y shaped object and line from the GB-Ca2 quarters, but rendered so badly that the Y almost appears as a T.

Bt. Gemini XIV, lot 38 (2018)

Ex Philip T. Ashton Collection

Ex Berk 123, 23 October 2001, lot 1

Ex Chris Rudd 36

Ex John Sills

Ex Mike Vosper 1997

CCI 98.1863

ABC	ABC 530. Sills Insular Cf
Divided Kingdoms	DK 134. Insular Cf2 Class 2 (This coin)
Sills 2003	Sills 461. Insular Cf2 Class 2 (This coin)

Insular Cf2 is the earliest identifiable British gold coinage. It was derived from, and contemporary with, the later GB-Ca2 classes (see 45). It is split into two classes, with the first starting as a near identical copy of GB-Ca2, and the second being a much cruder copy. It is likely that the dies for the first class were cut by an experienced continental engraver who had worked on GB-Ca2, and the dies for the cruder second class were cut by a newly trained British engraver.

This coin is one of the crude class 2 coins, and is the plate coin in “Divided Kingdoms” (DK 134). Its metal content has been analysed, and it consists of 59.5% gold, 31.1% silver, and 10.1% copper.

This is one of two in the collection (see 41).