BRETAGNE – durotriges Statère d’or TTB+

BRETAGNE – durotriges Statère d’or
Avers : Restes de tête humaine laurée à droite, avec un bourrelet devant les restes du visage.
Revers : Cheval disloqué galopant à gauche avec douze globules; derrière, trois lignes horizontales ; à l’exergue, restes de motif géométrique.
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British B (Chute) Belgae tribe, Chute type Gold Stater dating to around 50BC
Wreath, Cloak and crescents / Disjointed horse left, crab below.
These staters are attributed to the Belgae tribe, but it’s more likely that they were minted by an unknown tribe no longer in the historical record:
The design on the staters is an indigenous Westerham design, but the Belgae consisted of tribes originally from northern Gaul, some newly arrived, who had their own distinctive style. British B was followed by British Da and then British Db before dropping out of the numismatic record. British D has a much smaller distribution, lower gold content, and lower weight, than British B. They appear to have been minted by a tribe that was losing territory and wealth. Chute staters have been found in many large hoards, and as a result is the insular coinage with the highest survival rate. If these hoards were still under the tribe’s control when British D was minted, then they would have been melted down and British D coins would have a higher gold content than they do. Their low gold content suggests that whoever minted them no longer controlled the territory where the British B hoards were buried.