Iceni Freckenham Phallic “Pelleted Star” Gold Stater

Description

Click here to see a video of this coin. Iceni Freckenham Phallic “Pelleted Star” stater. Coins of the Iceni (COI) type 62b, ABC 1450. 10 – 20 AD.

Very Rare type (only 27 recorded in CCI). Talbot dies D/3. 16 from this die pair. 5.29g, 17.62mm.

Sharply struck on beautiful bright rose gold.

Obverse: Back to back crescents with chevron terminals and twin pellets between. There’s a pellet triad between the crescents at the bottom, and a five pointed star above. Two pellets sit between the arms of this star. The faint remains of a five pointed star can be seen below the kerb. The die stood proud below the kerb and it may have had a practical use such as holding the flan onto the die during striking.

Reverse: Horse facing right with a pellet mane, a floral sun below, and the end of a “phallic” symbol above, which make be a stylised yoke, bucranium, or hidden face.  Pellets around.  The centring is such that both the flare of the tail and the head can be seen.

The back-to-back crescents on the obverse were first used on Catuvellauni coinage and were introduced into Iceni coinage around the time of Tasciovanus. The Catuvellauni ceased to use it with Cunobelinus, but it continued to dominate the Iceni issues. It is thought that these may be back to back moons, or open mouthed fish, in which case they may represent the constellation of Pisces which is rendered as two back-to-back fish joined by a horizontal line (and has been since at least 2300 BC). Astronomical symbols appear to be common on Celtic coins and the Ursa Minor constellation appears on the Iceni’s earlier Norfolk Wolf Right staters. Julius Caesar said of the British druids “…They also hold long discussions about the heavenly bodies and their movements, the size of the universe and of the earth, the physical constitution of the world, and the power and properties of the gods” (Commentarii de Bello Gallico book 6 chapter 14).