Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 8. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CELTIC, Gaul. Uncertain tribe. Circa 58-27 BC. AV Quarter Stater (1.54 gm). Cross-Channel Prototype. Highly stylized head right / Horse right; "branch" above and pellets around. D&T 340; Scheers, SM -; De la Tour -. Good VF. Rare. ($1000)

Two of the Celtic gold quarter staters offered in this auction are described as the "Uniface Tree" and the "Treelike Trophy" types, with their designs popularly said to have Druidical links, or derived from the trophy and captive denarius of Julius Caesar. This Gallic quarter stater, apparently unpublished before 1993, is the last in a progression under Delestrée and Tache's série 45, as "final local derivations of the 'biface stater", or Philip style staters. When this coin is rotated at the proper angle, the central remnant of the face does appear as an upright tree-like pattern between the remains of the laurel wreath. This type does appear to be the link between the late Philip quarter staters and the "Tree" quarter staters of northern Gaul and Britain.