Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 644. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CELTIC, Southeast Gaul. The Tectosages. Circa 100-44 BC. AR Drachm (3.60 g, 7h). Monnaies à la Croix - Style Languedocien. Celticized head left; the hair coiled into three conch shell-like curls / Quadripartite design; two opposing quarters with crescents, the other two opposing quarters with crescent-and-pellet and lis-and-bar, respectively. Savès 276; CCCBM II -; Scheers, S-M -; De la Tour -; cf. Chabouillet 3350; Allen & Nash -. Good VF, choice toning. Exceptional strike. Rare variety with lis. ($300)

From the Prof. T.R. Gurr Collection.

The "monnaies à la croix" originated in Spanish copies of the rose drachms of the Greek colony of Rhodes of the 3rd century BC. By the end of the 2nd century crude drachms were being struck by many of the Celtic tribes in southern Gaul, and the croix had become the standard currency across the region. This Languedoc variety, probably struck by the Tectosages, but also attributed to the Nitiobroges, is one of the scarcer sub-types, with the more prevalent axe symbol replaced by a lis.