Selsey Two Faced. No Bars Type. Sills British Qa, class 1, dies 1/1. c.55-45 BC. Gold stater. 17mm. 6.08g. Wreath design with little phallic face and crescentic hidden face./ Triple-tailed horse right, charioteer’s arms above, ‘coffee bean’ below tail, eight-spoked wheel below. ABC−, VA 210, BMC 449, DK 150, S 38. CCI 09.4688 (this coin). Good VF, lustrous yellow gold, sharp strike, with crisp crescents, whole horse and full wheel. Ex John Follows collection. Found Westergate, West Sussex c.2004. EXTREMELY RARE die pair, only ten others recorded.

A well centred and boldly struck example of what Van Arsdell calls ‘the process of abstraction…the Celts were masters of it’ (Celtic Coinage of Britain, 1989, p.45) and what John Follows calls ‘Celtic art in action’ in Coin News, March 2020, p.41-43. On this superb specimen – all parts stand out in high relief – you can clearly see that famous little phallic face at 3 o’clock (see Chris Rudd, Hidden faces on Celtic coins, Coin News, November 2019, p.41-43. Published by Dr Philip de Jersey in Coin Hoards in Iron Age Britain, Spink 2014, p.408, No.25 (this coin) and Divided Kingdoms, pp.145 and 159 (this coin).