Picked up a MS Quarter Stater from the Morini Tribe AV Quarter Stater ND (70-50BC) 12mm. 1.47g. R-2 Obverse: Boat like object? Reverse: Tree/ flanked by two ornamental symbols/ below a Sickle shaped device/ crescent moon These Morini guys lived near the Brittany Coast of France. In 56BC sent sent a 25,000 men army to add the Venetii in their campaign vs Julius Caesars Roman Army. These coins where struck to pay them.
Thanks! Seems the gold purity was much higher in the Continental Celtic gold/ then the debased coinage in Britannia.
John, Nice score on your 1/4 Stater miniature ! In your description you mentioned the Veneti Tribe, their coins are rare & very expensive. The gold Stater pictured below was auctioned by Leu Numismatik in 2017 for 24,000 Swiss Francs . Celtic, Veneti Tribe, 2nd Century BCE, AV Stater: 7.49 gm, 19 mm, 6 h. I felt very lucky to add the silver stater of the Veneti Tribe to my collection, pictured below . Celtic, Veneti Tribe, Circa 100 - 50 BCE, AR Stater: 7.19 gm, 19.5 mm, 8 h. Obverse: Head of Ogmios facing right (Celtic god of eloquence). Reverse: Charioteer holding stem with rosette on top, driving a chariot being pulled by a man headed horse that is leaping over a running boar.
Very cool, @panzerman. It's really striking, just as a gestalt (--yes, that's an English word!), that a coin with no legend can still be so amazingly historically resonant. ...Can I say it again? Just, Very cool.
Nice coin @panzerman. I have some of these as well and they are amongst my favourite coins. Your quarter is from 56/55BC and the associated stater had a mean gold content of 60%. The staters in Britain around that time (70-55 BC) were in the 70% to 50% range. It's fair to assume that the 70% ones were early and correspond to the GB-Ca staters and the 55% ones are for the class that comes after yours in 55/54 BC (average gold 51% dropping to 44%). It looks like both sides of the channel were on the same monetary standard. The continental gold coins stop not long after this, so they didn't get the chance to debase as much as the British ones.
