Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 18. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $218. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CELTIC, Britain. Cantiaci. Circa 50-30 BC. AE Unit (1.43 gm). Canterbury Lion Type. Leonine male head right with large eye and mane-like locks of hair / Lion left with S-shaped raised tail, ring above and below. Hobbs 2488; Van Arsdell 154-9; SCBC 176. VF, dark patina. Very rare. ($300)

Found near Southfleet, Kent.

This is one of the eight types of Cantiaci coins that Van Arsdell labeled ‘Kentish Uncertain’ due to their great rarity in the late 1980s and their typically very poor condition. He was unable to provide a picture of this type and said ‘too poorly preserved to identify’ and ‘possibly an earlier import from Gaul.’ Though still very rare, a few more specimens have emerged, and we are now able to see a very powerful Celtic head on one side, with large swept-back locks of hair, and a bouncy lion on the other side.