Facing Horses -

Facing Horses. Right Type. c.50-40 BC. Silver unit. 15mm. 1.07g. Two horses rearing face to face, harness between noses, s-shape tail raised, cogwheel between, two smaller opposed horses below, rings around./ Horse right, ladder-like mane, cogwheel in front, small inverted horse above, boar right below.  A newly recorded type, unrecognised prior to the discovery of this important coin and unlisted by all major reference works. Excessively rare,  only one other known (a fragment).  Though found in Hampshire, the land of the Belgae, the very large size of its flan and its very distinctive opposed horses and its 'three-beast' reverse all indicate that this beautifully designed coin could be equally at home with the Abingdon Zoo types from Berkshire (cf. ABC 1001-1007, 2113-2116, 2273). Britain's facing horses coins were undoubtedly inspired by and copied from the Gallo-Belgic series of aux chevaux affrontés types, DT 433-443. Indeed the dies for our remarkable coin could well have been cut for a southern British ruler by a Gallo-Belgic émigré, fleeing from the Gallic Wars.   Weight: 1.3 g   Diameter: 16 mm    Discovered in West Oxfordshire, 2018.

Images/data courtesy of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, item # NMS-2539D1