Description
Celtic Gaul. Carnutes (région de Chartres et d’Orléans). 1/4 Stater, 2nd-1st century BC. Electrum 1.51 g.; 12 mm.
Obverse: Profile to the right, moon-shaped, with plain cheek. The hair is made up of several rows of interlaced crescent-shaped locks. Where the ear should be, two parallel lines starting from two locks and ending in a three-pellet triangular ornament. The eye is almond-shaped, with a pellet in the centre, and the nose is triangular. At the base of the neck, two rows of 4 pellets //
Reverse: Biga to the right, only represented by a single horse, surmounted by a charioteer. Behind, a 4-spoked wheel. Below, an upside-down three-stringed lyra. An earth line under which there is a row of inverted V-shaped decorative signs evoking a caption.
Delestrée: 2535.
Very rare, good quality, magnificent portrait on a well-centered flan.
NGC graded Ch XF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5
Comment
Superb example with the lyra ("à la lyre"), for which it is very rare to find specimens in such a beautiful state of preservation. With a small 12mm flan, most of the type's designs can be seen, which all came out very well when struck, and in particular the decorative signs below the ground line on the reverse, which are very rarely seen on other examples of this type.
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