60 - Floret Trophy - The TCx3 Collection

Unique ID: 60

Technical details

DataDescriptionProvenanceReferences

Denomination	Quarter Stater	Metal	Gold
Area	Britain	Region	North Thames
Issuing Authority	Segontiaci	Issuer	Unknown
Weight	1.37g	Diameter	10.76mm
Rarity	Very Rare (16 to 30)	Date	53 BC to 40 BC (see note about dating)

Obverse Legend	No Legend
Reverse Legend	No Legend
Obverse Description	The obverse is blank apart from a floret made from four annulets. There are two faint bands as on the other Le2 coins, although they are hard to see on this particular coin. This banding is common on Cantiaci gold coins.
Reverse Description	The reverse centres around a tree like object (also called a trophy) with a trunk and six branches; three at each side. At its base is a ringed pellet with two roots. Each root ends in a ringed pellet although the one on the left is off flan. To the left and right of the trunk are two snake like objects with annulet heads. Above these is a dotted line. To the upper left of the tree is an S shaped object that was possibly beaded. Above the tree is a key shaped object which, based on other reverse dies, is an oval annulet and a vertically challenged S shaped object which have come into contact, possibly from a die break.

Bt. Spink Auction 19004 Lot 917 2019

Ex. Spink ‘Celtic Coins from the Geoff Cottam Collection’ (Auction 15049 Lot 240) 2015

Ex. Geoff Cottam collection

Ex. Mike Vosper, 6 October 2000

CCI 15.0444

ABC	ABC 2246. Floret Trophy
Divided Kingdoms	DK 450. British Le2 – Floret
Van Arsdell	VA 146-01. Cantian G – Middle Trophy Type

The Floret Trophy quarter stater is part of the British Le2 series which was minted by an unknown tribe in the Essex area. There are four types of Le2 quarter staters, the others being S-Type (see 55), Double Snake (see 57), and Beaded Trophy (see 56), all featuring the banded obverses that were a staple of the coins from Kent. They also all have reverses derived from GB-D, which is also common for Kentish coins (see 44), suggesting that the tribe responsible had emigrated from Kent to North of the Thames. Caesar named five tribes who surrendered to him north of the Thames, and the S on the obverse of the S-Type suggests that it might have been the Segontiaci.

This particular coin is obverse die 2, reverse die 9, and is the only coin known from this reverse die.