283, Lot: 147. Estimate $500. Sold for $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GAUL, Northeast. Nervii. 2nd century BC. AV Quarter Stater (12mm, 1.91 g). Gallo-Belgic B, Crossed Lines with Rider type. Vertical and diagonal lines / [Charioteer driving] horse left; ‘lyre’ and pellet below. D&T 94; Depeyrot, NC 158; Van Arsdell 37; ABC 37; SCBC 9. Good VF. Rare.

In the early nineteenth century, Edward Davies claimed that the Druids used coelbreni or "omen sticks" for casting lots; as the sticks fell, so the diviner interpreted the fates. This theory was taken up by M. Lambeaux (Chris Rudd List 27, 1997, no. 14), and seemingly confirmed by the discovery of eight carefully positioned iron and bronze rods found in a Druid's grave at Stanway, near Cunobelin’s capital of Camulodunum, Essex. It is therefore possible that the apparently random crossed lines on the so-called "defaced die" staters and quarter staters are actually Druidic divining rods.