132, Lot: 329. Estimate $750. Sold for $626. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CELTIC BRITAIN. Cantiaci. Dubnovellaunus. Circa 30-10 BC. AV Stater (16mm, 5.49 g, 2h?). Undefined parallel banding / Horse prancing right; above, bucranium, pellets, and pellet-in-rings; serpentine pattern below. Hobbs 2492; Van Arsdell 169-1; SCBC 177. VF. Pale rose gold.

From the Matthew Rich Collection. Ex Dolphin Coins (September 1993), no. 5037.

The bucranium symbol above the horse on various late Celtic staters raises an interesting question on the development of Celtic coin types. On the earliest Gallo-Belgic staters the derivation of the reverse type from the Macedonian chariot type is clear. On a later type the horse remains, but there is only a curious looping device above it, which nonetheless can be interpreted as the charioteer, holding the reins and his whip. On this type, some twenty years after the previous example, we find the device of the bucranium between pellets. Is this in fact the last traces of the charioteer, the meaning of the type lost after decades of copying?