Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 59. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $1550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CELTIC, Britain. Iceni. Circa 45-40 BC. AV Stater (5.04 gm). Freckenham Crescents Phallic Type. Two solid back-to-back crescents on horizontal line, row of pellets projecting from each concave side, pellet triad between, large five-pointed star above with pellets in two angles and star below / Round-chested Celtic horse right with cabled mane, glans of phallic symbol above, solar flower below. Hobbs 3385; Van Arsdell 620-4 var. (no dot immediately below horse); SCBC 426. CCI 02.0082. Good VF, light porosity, beautiful rose-gold, bold moons, fabulous Freckenham style horse, well ornamented. Extremely rare variety (no dot immediately below horse). ($1000)

From the Michael Richards Collection. Ex Chris Rudd list 62, no. 36; Classical Numismatic Group 57 (4 April 2001), lot 1741.

On this superb Freckenham gold stater we can clearly see that the two opposed crescent moons ­ a distinctive astrological emblem especially popular with the Iceni ­ have attachments which are more than decorative and which indicate that we are supposed to perceive something more than just two moons. C. Rudd is uncertain as to what they are meant to represent, but presumes that they might be a pair of open-mouthed fish. If indeed this is the case, then the symbol possibly signifies either the constellation of Pisces or the zodiacal sign of Pisces which, since classical times, has been depicted as two fish arranged parallel to one another, but facing opposite directions, frequently conjoined by a horizontal bar, which might account for the horizontal line of this coin.

The Druids were known to be experts in astronomy and astrology, and during this period in late Iron Age Britain they probably exerted considerable influence on the choice of imagery shown on coins, particularly images of a religious or occult character. Julius Caesar states: ‘The Druids officiate at the worship of the gods, regulate public and private sacrifices, and give rulings on all religious questions…The Druidic doctrine is believed to have been found existing in Britain and thence imported into Gaul; even today [53 BC] those who want to make a profound study of it generally go to Britain for the purpose…They also hold long discussions about the heavenly bodies and their movements, the size of the universe and of the earth, the physical constitution of the world, and the power and properties of the gods; and they instruct the young men in all these subjects’ (BG VI, 13, 14).

Pomponius Mela (circa AD 18-75), the Spanish geographer, says that ‘teachers of wisdom called Druids…profess to know the size and shape of the world, the movements of the heavens and of the stars, and the will of the gods.’ (De Situ Orbis, III, translated by T.D.Kendrick). Given the testimony of these two authoritative classical commentators, it does not seem far fetched that British Druids were well aware of the traditional image of Pisces, the twelfth house of the Zodiac, and that some Icenian priest was probably responsible for suggesting that the sign of Pisces was subtly incorporated in the design of this gold stater, blending it cleverly with the tribal emblem of two opposed moons.