COLLECTING CELTIC COINS
SIMON BROWN, Liberalitas Antiquities

LIBERALITAS ANTIQUITIES deals in British Celtic Iron Age coins and nothing more. Twelve months ago Liberalitas did not exist and I was a collector of all manner of Celtic artefacts, from arrowheads to torcs. Occasionally I would come across Celtic coins for sale and marvel at the detailed figures and inscriptions on the tiny fl ans. So I added a couple of units to my general Celtic collection. Eventually I bought a few more and a metal detector, a copy of British Iron Age Coins in the British Museum and Celtic Coinage of Britain by Van Arsdell. Now I have a limited company dealing in nothing but Celtic Coins and am a member of the British Numismatic Society.

So what is the attraction of this type of numismatic material?

While a student of archaeology at Cambridge University, my specialist field was the Iron Age period of British history. Living in Hertfordshire I was particularly interested in the Catuvellauni tribe whose lands stretched from Hertfordshire through Essex, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and part of modern day Oxfordshire. There is much evidence in these areas of sites of occupation. Cunobelin reigned over the Catuvellauni for 30 years and was perhaps the most influential Celtic leader of the late Iron Age. Indeed, he could be seen as the first British king; he unified tribes of the southeast and was powerful enough to be known to Rome.

The Celts left no written records, but their coins contain an enormous amount of contemporary detail. They provide us with a window into the Celtic way of life, from battle dress, to hunting practice, and from dress styles to musical instruments. All of these aspects of British Celtic life can be seen in detail. This is an amazing revelation when you consider that these coins are over 2,000 years old. Cunobelin is thought to have died between AD 41 and AD 43, but the exact date is unknown. Similarly, no one really knows his resting-place. But from his coins, we know what he looked like and how he wore his hair!

Many people believe that collecting Celtic coins is only for the rich. This may have been the case in years gone by, but it does not hold true today. Before the positive impact of the metal detector, coins were found very infrequently and this very limited availability made them highly prized by collectors. While British Celtic coins remain rare in any condition, there are many more of them around now—a result of responsible metal detecting, which since the 1970s has provided collectors and dealers with a rich source of material.

Many of the Celtic coins available to the collector exhibit the most incredible symbolic Celtic art. Remember that these coins date from a period before Roman influence. They depict mystical representations of creatures, stylised faces and many include hidden figures only seen when looked at closely—for example the hidden bull on the obverse of the coin illustrated. The bull is thought to represent sacrifi cial religious rites often associated with Druidism. At first glance the bull appears to be looking down on a horse, but a horse that has the beak of a bird and the crest feathers of an eagle. While there are 16 of this basic coin type recorded at the Celtic Coin Index, this example has a unique arrangement of pellets when compared with the BMC example (BMC 1654). It is thought that many images on Celtic coins were influenced by the Druid class, who had a major impact on all things within Celtic society.

There are a number of dealers specialising in Celtic coins, who offer new collectors the opportunity to obtain fine examples at reasonable prices. One of the most helpful dealers in this area is Chris Rudd who has been collecting for many years. He produces two regular catalogues. The main list contains more expensive items while “Liz’s List” offers coins for under £200 and many for less than £100. I would recommend that any new collector checks out these lists—they are very informative with detailed and knowledgeable descriptions of all the coins. There are also a number of other high-profile dealers who advertise within the pages of COIN NEWS and who offer reasonably priced Celtic coins, many of whom are web-based businesses.

There are also a number of coin fairs around the country where, from time to time, you can pick up bargains. I recently purchased a Cunobelin bronze unit from a dealer (who will remain nameless) for £50. It was worth considerably more than the price I paid. So, armed with a little knowledge, you can find bargains. Dr Philip de Jersey is the keeper of the Celtic Coin Index (CCI) at Oxford University and his website at www.athens.arch.ox.ac.uk is well worth visiting. Philip references all Celtic coins submitted to the CCI and now holds the most detailed database in the world, listing over 35,000 Celtic coins. It is a rich source of reference material, and Dr Philip de Jersey’s Celtic Coins in Britain [Shire Publications] is an excellent introduction to the subject.

If you are a fan of the ever-growing eBay phenomenon, you can also find auctions for Celtic coins there. It is perfectly possible to pick up bargains on eBay, but you should bid with some caution. Always try to obtain a provenance from the seller; a Celtic coin without this is worth far less than one with it. There are forgeries around and it takes time and experience to spot the telltale signs. It is also illegal to sell hoard coins (more that two gold or silver coins) if the correct authorities have not first examined them and people do break up hoards and offer single units for sale on eBay. Having said this, there are some superb examples offered through eBay, but always apply common sense (caveat emptor—buyer beware).

Collecting Celtic coins is still a specialist field, but this makes it a little elite, a small select club. The feeling of obtaining a coin of which there are perhaps only a dozen recorded, is a very special moment. And you can buy well if you know what you are looking for. British Celtic coins are part of our heritage and collecting them is a privilege. Conserving this heritage is essential. We are so fortunate to have access to the historical nature of the material and by collecting these coins we preserve the very roots of our Celtic ancestry. I can’t think of a more noble hobby!

For further information on this subject why not join ' The Collectors Lounge', and Ebay Community Group (forum) run by Simon Brown of Liberalitas. Click here to apply to join. You can also register for updates and special offers on Liberalitas, by adding us to your favourite Ebay sellers list, click here to do that now.

THE RARITY OF CELTIC COINS
- what do we mean?
by Simon Brown (Liberalitas) & Sarah Wisson

Rare ~ adj. 1. occurring very infrequently; 2. remarkable

THE rarity of British Celtic coins is based on the number recorded by the Celtic Coin Index*: scarce is 51 to 100 coins; rare 31 to 50; very rare 16 to 30; extremely rare six to 15; and excessively rare is a mere one to five coins. These numbers can be only a rough guide, as a fair proportion of coin finds go unreported. And lists of numbers are all very well, but this kind of information is far easier to envisage if put into context.

We all use coins every day, dragging them from the bottom of a pocket or purse to pay for a lunchtime sandwich or after-work beer. We take them for granted, dropping small change in to a jar on the mantelpiece, or letting a few pennies fall down the back of the sofa. But for all their functional ubiquity, how easily could you get hold of a coin in practice? Think about it. Without venturing near a shop or a bank, or that jar on the mantelpiece, go outside now and find a modern two pence piece. How difficult would it be? How long would it take you? An hour? Two? All day? Now try to find a two pence piece from a specific year. Scour your garden, the street, your local park, the nearest field. Even with a metal detector, you could be searching for hours, turning over endless chunks of old tractor.

Now let’s take the challenge to the next stage—find a Victorian penny. And take it back even further, 1,400 years to the time of the Anglo Saxons. How many sceats from the time of King Offa still survive? Could you find one? And could you devote weeks, months and even years to finding just one coin?

And back even further to the time of the Celts, 2,000 years ago; Cunobelin and Tasciovanus, the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes. Their coins were symbols of status and wealth, swapped between leading members of the tribes as signs of goodwill. They probably weren’t coins as we know them today—used to pay for trivial everyday items or even in trade with the outside world. Gold and silver coins in Celtic Britain were prized items and an ideal way for nobles and kings to bestow gifts on their followers, thereby enhancing their prestige. Fashioned by master craftsmen, emblazoned with symbols of the tribe and king, these coins were not something the common people would see every day.

We asked Dr Philip de Jersey, keeper of the Celtic Coin Index based at Oxford University what he thought the contemporary value of a 5.5g gold stater would have been in AD 37. “It’s almost impossible to say. Exactly how they were used, and their value, remains one of the most difficult questions to answer. My hunch is that they had a high intrinsic value right up to the end of the Iron Age, so perhaps a stater in AD 37 might have bought a cow, or a month’s grain... but really it is nigh on impossible to say. There is just no evidence to go on. Besides, one could argue that the value was far more mental and social: the kudos that went with having a pile of staters, the social obligations that entailed, the power they could possess when offered to the gods...”.

There are approximately 6,900 British Iron Age gold staters registered at the CCI along with 1,000 Gallo-Belgic staters minted in France but imported into Britain. Dr de Jersey has estimated that around 100,000 Celtic coins have been found in Britain. “If the gold staters form the same percentage of that total as they do of the current CCI, then there ought to be approximately 21,000 now in existence. But these figures are extraordinarily difficult to work out, and personally I doubt whether there are another 13,000 or so gold staters ‘out there’ which we [CCI] don’t know about. So I suspect the figure is exaggerated, and that perhaps there may be something like 15,000 staters presently in existence.”

It’s helpful to have an image in our minds of just how difficult it is to find Celtic coins, but pure numbers aren’t the end of the story. Once a coin is discovered, its condition is assessed in order to assign a grading. Is it in good condition, fine, near very fine, near extremely fine? The obverse may be graded one way, the reverse another. It stands to reason that if you have a coin graded as fine or extremely fine but all the other known examples are in pretty dismal condition, then your coin is instantly rarer, and more valuable. See our grading chart, for the interpretations we use.

Rarity has a further aspect, related to the pair of dies that was used to strike the coin. In the same way that a gun barrel leaves unique markings on a bullet, the die used for striking a coin leaves its own unique pattern on each coin it was used to form. Any markings additional to the main design, small imperfections perhaps, or an extra line where the die maker’s hand slipped, will show up on the resulting coin. And as there would often have been more than one set of dies used for producing a particular coin type, any variations enable us to tell whether a group of coins was made by the same die. These variations from the main recorded coin make any unit rarer still—they belong to a particular coin type, but have a little extra something.

This excessively rare North Thames Gold quarter stater (right) possibly of the Cassi tribe and Cassivellaunus himself C. 55 - 50BC, illustrates this rarity beautifully. There are only 3 other similar types known to exsist and only in the Celtic Coin Index at Oxford University. This coin has the best known obverse of the 4 known examples and is Trinovantian in style having been found in Hatfield in Herts.

Few Celtic coins were minted and few of these survive. Some were made as early as 100 BC, but the majority of British Celtic coins were struck between 54 BC and AD 43—a mere one hundred or so years of production, most of which was pretty sporadic. Imagine trying to find a Celtic coin now, 2,000 years after the last units were struck…. To find any Celtic unit, even in dismal condition would count as a special moment. To find a unit in excellent condition, one of which there are few other examples in the world, such as the Cunobelin gold stater, would surely be the zenith of a passionate collector’s life. You know you could search for a lifetime and never find another!

* The Celtic Coin Index is a collection of more than 35,000 images of Celtic coins found in Britain. Celtic Coin Index, Dr Philip de Jersey, Institute of Archaeology, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG.