44 - Treelike Trophy

Denomination

Quarter Stater

Metal

Gold

Area

Britain

Region

Kent

Issuing Authority

Cantiaci

Issuer

Unknown

Weight

1.34g

Diameter

12.16mm

Rarity

Scarce (51 to 100)

Date

45 BC to 40 BC (see note about dating)

Obverse Legend

No Legend

Reverse Legend

No Legend

Obverse Description

The obverse is almost blank, but has some short curved lines around the outside, and two faint bands running accross it. This banding is common on Cantiaci gold coins.

Reverse Description

A tree like object (the “trophy”) with six branches and three roots appears in the middle of the coin. There are four rings and a crescent above the tree. The ring directly above the tree is beaded and contains a round pellet. The ones directly to either side are plain, broken, slighty oval, and each contains an oval pellet. A small crescent appears above the broken ring on the left, and a large crescent appears to its left. It looks like it could be a full ring that’s cut by the flan, but it is clearly a crescent on other coins. No coin shows these crescent appearing on the right, so it appears that the design is deliberately asymetrical.

To the left and right of the tree, beside its trunk, are two bars with wave patterns inside. The bar to the right has a thin line above it, coming from the lower tree branch.

Below the decorated bars are two small rings containing pellets; one ring per bar. Below is a line shaped like a lightning bolt, and below that is a crescent. On the extreme bottom left of the coin, two objects intrude into the design. On all other coins there is a single hairlock (common on the obverse of staters) here so it’s not clear what these objects are.

ABC 189. Treelike Trophy

DK 56. British P Class 1 – Tree