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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Pellinore, post: 5355142, member: 74834&quot;]On the last day of this infamous year, another top list of my favorite escape door from toil and trouble. I love Celtic numismatics for its inventivity, its independent styles, and its great noncomformist artistry, that often links to modern art. Besides, they are the oldest coins from the area where I live, and that I (used to) roam - Northwestern Europe. I can&#039;t make a top ten, for I bought only nine. </p><p><br /></p><p>The first coin (nr. 9) shows some lettering, which is not all too common for Celtic coinage: &quot;VERCIO&quot;. Naturally, one hopes this points to the contemporary Gallic leader Vercingetorix, who was famously vanquished by the Romans and proudly shown in chains in a Roman triumph. But we simply don&#039;t know. The coin is from the Nervii tribe, who were living in Hainault, west of Brussels. </p><p>There is a famous Belgian comic strip album, that I first read as a ten-year-old, <i>The Nervous Nervians</i> (Suske &amp; Wiske series, &quot;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_and_Suzy" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_and_Suzy" rel="nofollow">Suske and Suzy</a>&quot; in English), featuring Santérix (and his wife Kokadildis), Pintorix and Twistorix, all original Flemish Nervians. So these Nervous Nervians for me always have some family feeling about them. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227048[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>9. Celtic AE, Nervii, VERCIO. After 52 BC. Obv.:&nbsp; Lion jumping to the right. Under this, VE-RC-IO. Rev.: Horse galloping right. Above its back, a sun wheel. Text VE-R-C-IO. 17-19 mm, 4.95 gr. Scheers, Traité, 517-518. De La Tour 8780 (pl. XXXV).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227054[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>8. My next coin is from another northern Celtic tribe, the Remi, who were living near Reims. An idiosyncratic design, without examples from the past or from other cultures. </p><p><br /></p><p>Celtic potin, Remi. Obv.:&nbsp; Head left, smooth-haired, neck decorated with wavy lines. Rev.: Wild boar to the left. Between its legs, gibbous human head (or: the boar jumps over the moon). 17 mm, 3.89 gr. Scheers, Traité, 707 (uncertain); De La Tour 9180; Depeyrot, NC V, 214 (Parisii, circa 50-30 BC). </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227087[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>7. This coin is very different, it&#039;s from the Eastern part of Europe (roughly around what&#039;s now Moldova), but also considered Celtic. It closely follows Greek coinage. But what a caricature face!</p><p><br /></p><p>Eastern Europe, Celtic AR drachm, imitation of Alexander III of Macedon 300-200 BC. AR 17 mm, 3.38 gr. Cf. Sergeev nr. 135: ‘Between the Balkans and the Dniepr basin’. Ostkeltischer Typenatlas (Göbl) 591,1. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227094[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>6. Another Macedon-inspired silver coin, a large and characteristically vague tetradrachm from the Middle-European Carpathian region: mid-Romania near Brasov I would say. Called &#039;Entenschnabel&#039; or Duck Beak type - look at the horse. Isn&#039;t it a fantastic abstract horseman? And that face at the obverse, like a thundercloud.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eastern Celts, mint in the Central Carpathian region, 2nd century BC. Scyphate AR tetradrachm. Obv. Vague Zeus head to the right, ‘Kinnlos’. = Chinless. Rev. Rider on a horse, ‘Entenschnabel’. = Duck Beak. 24 mm, 12.38 gr. Sergeev 70-71 (p. 36). Aninoasa-Dobresti type.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227099[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>5. This is a coin from Gaul again, that I bought for its remarkable obverse face, like a court jester. </p><p><br /></p><p>Celtic, AR quinarius, Carnutes (living around what&#039;s now Orléans and Chartres). 50-30 BC. Andecombrius. Obv. ANDECOM Diademed and draped male bust to left. Rev. ANDECO[MBO] Male horse galloping left. 12 mm, 1.60 gr., 6 h. De La Tour 6342. From the Keltika Collection, Switzerland.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227100[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>4. A tiny gold coin of curious abstract design, but derived, far, far away, from the Macedon example of the head of Philip II with the rider on the reverse.</p><p><br /></p><p>Celtic AV scyphate quarter stater. Bellovaci (Beauvais), after 57 BC. Obv. Schematized portrait to the right with a large eye. Rev. Horse galloping to the left, pellet-like body, with a large pointed ear. Above and below, a star. 11 mm, 1.49 gr. Scheers, Traité 160.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227102[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>3. And this coin basically shows a like picture: a head on the obverse and a four-legged animal on the reverse. Very much abstracted, through radically different avenues! <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-a-greek-god-inspired-the-first-british-coins.364799/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-a-greek-god-inspired-the-first-british-coins.364799/">See this post</a> by [USER=109923]@John Conduitt[/USER] for its development.</p><p><br /></p><p>Celtic, cast potin unit, Cantii (they were living in Kent, Britain). Uninscribed. Early 1st century BC (c. 75-55 BC according to Holman). Obv. Elementary head of Apollo to the left. Rev. Angular elementary bull t.r. 18 mm, 1.72 gr. Cantian F type Talbot Classification System (<a href="https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/2016_BNJ_86_2.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/2016_BNJ_86_2.pdf" rel="nofollow">David Holman, &#039;A new classification system for the Flat Linear potin coinage</a>&#039;, 2016) p. 62. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227103[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>2. This coin I bought because of its joyous style. </p><p><br /></p><p>Celtic uninscribed AR unit, quinar size. Iceni (living in what&#039;s now Norfolk, UK). C. 50-40 BC. Bury Diadem type (&quot;Gallo-Belgic XD&quot;) type. Uncertain mint in the upper valley of the river Yare. Obv. Diademed head left; (upside-down?) snake symbol to the left. Rev. Horse leaping left; pellet in ring of pellets above, pellet-in-annulets around. 15 mm, 1.47 gr, 6h. Talbot Bury A type, unlinked group, dies G/9. Not in Allen; Van Arsdell 80-1 (&#039;imported)&#039;. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227104[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>1. A coin of the Remi again (well, probably), like nr. 8 above. According to the seller, this is comparable to Scheers, Traité, 528, but an unlisted variant. I can&#039;t judge that, but I fell for its fantastic design, I just had to have it. </p><p><br /></p><p>Remi? AE14. Obv.: Celticized head right, spikey hair. Rev.: Celticized horse left, dot in pellet above, three dots in pellet below. 14 mm, 1.73 gr. ‘(&#039;unlisted&#039;, cf. Scheers Traité XIX, 528).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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