Triton XX, Lot: 1452. Estimate $3000. Sold for $2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CELTIC, Atrebates & Regni. Verica. Circa AD 10-40. AV Stater (15mm, 5.32 g, 5h). Vine leaf type. Southern mint. Vine leaf; [VI to left], RI to right / Horseman with spear and shield on back, leaping from platform with distinct cross-hatching; C O F around. Allen & Haselgrove Series D, 91–3 (dies H/p); Bean VERS3-1e; Van Arsdell 520-1; ABC 1193; SCBC 121. EF. Attractive style.

From the L. Shea Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group Inventory 961517 (September 2013).

According to John Creighton (Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000] pp. 191-2), Roman influence is seen in the coinage of the late Atrebatic kings. On the coins, Tincomarus and Verica both name themselves as son of Commius, an earlier ruler with a fluctuating relationship with Rome. Initially an ally of Caesar in Gaul, Commius later rebelled and joined in the revolt of Vercingetorix, before eventually becoming king in southern Britain. After his death, Tincomarus and, to a greater extent, Verica established an ancestor cult venerating the former ruler and developed a program of images roughly mirroring that of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. The coins are inscribed COMmii Filius, son of Commius, and bear various images relating to the divine pedigree of Verica and the new age of prosperity, such as the vine leaf on the present coin.