Freckenham Crescents Step. Iceni c. 5-10 AD. Second Known and Best Example

Description

Click here to see a video of this coin. Iceni Freckenham Crescents Step gold stater. 5.3g, 19.9mm. Made for Trade Boar Horse B (A) dies Q/14 (listed as unique). Coins of the Iceni type 58 (listed as unique). Not in ABC.

The esteemed Chris Rudd once said of this reverse “One of the cutest horses you’ll see on a coin, with an endearing, almost cartoon-like head”. This is the best centred example of this excessively rare type, struck in a lovely rose gold. The horse’s head and tail are both visible, as are the decorations above the horse, the full ladder exergue below, and the pellet triad in front. The obverse die is very worn, but the pellet triads appear to have been recut as they are deeply struck. This obverse is the last in the Boar Horse B (A) series, and this stater is probably one of the last ones minted using this obverse die.

The “Freckenham Crescents Step” stater is part of Dr. John Talbot’s “Boar Horse B (A)” type which was minted as part of Iceni tribe’s last gold coinage.  The main Boar Horse B type is characterised by a pellet rosette above the horse and a star below the horse.  There is a small die group made at a separate mint, which he calls subtype A, where the star below the horse is replaced by a second pellet rosette.  The star and the pellet rosette are privy marks denoting the workshop that minted the coins. This obverse die (Q) is the only one in the type that terminated the back-to-back crescents moons with chevrons rather than ringed pellets.