CNG 96, Lot: 612. Estimate $1500. Sold for $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GAUL, Northwest. Osismii(?). Circa 70-50 BC. AV Quarter Stater (13mm, 1.14 g, 2h). Severed head/boar type. Celtic head left, with hair in curls; ornaments terminating in smaller, severed heads before and behind / Human–headed horse left; severed head above; below, boar right. D&T –; Depeyrot, NC –; de la Tour –; BN –; de Jersey, Armorica –; Gruel & Morin –. Good VF. Unpublished in the major catalogues of Armorican coins. Extremely rare.

Found at Tarrant Abbey, Tarrant Keyneston, Dorset.

Struck in Brittany circa 70-50 BC, possibly by the Osismii, and imported to the south coast of Britain, perhaps shortly before or during the Gallic War. Tarrant Keyneston is only a few miles from Vindocladia (Badbury Rings), an important Durotrigan hill fort and settlement site. The precise rarity of this type (head facing left, not right) is hard to establish, but it seems likely that only a few are known. See K. Gruel & M. Clement, “Les monnaies gauloises au fanum de Trogouzel (29), essai d’interpretation,” in Mélanges Offert au Docteur J-B Colbert de Beaulieu (Paris: Le Léopard d’Or, 1987), p. 451-464, fig. M130.