Tincomarus Warrior. Pteruges and Antlers Type. Sills class 3, Classical Warrior. c.25BC-AD10. Gold stater. 13-17mm. 5.25g. TINC in incuse tablet on plain field./ Javelin-thrower on rearing horse right, javelin in raised right hand, CF below on exergual line, beaded border. Horseman wears short tunic and pteruges skirt. Horse has three-pronged ‘antler’ ears. ABC−, VA−, BMC−, DK−, S−. New type, apparently unpublished. CCI 09.4706 (this coin). Good VF, gorgeous yellow gold, full inscription, whole javelin-thrower, pteruges and ‘antlers’ clearly defined. Ex John Follows collection. Found near Salisbury, Wiltshire, 2007. EXCESSIVELY RARE this reverse die seemingly UNIQUE?

TINC is beautifully engraved in Roman capitals, each letter neatly seriffed – clearly the work of a Gallo-Roman die cutter. The reverse may have been copied from a silver quinarius of Arda, king or client king of the Treveri (DT 605) or directly from its prototype, a Roman silver denarius of P.Crepusius, 82 BC (Sear RCV 283). Derek Allen says: “The rider of the Roman coin is wearing a tunic and helmet, whereas the rider on the British coin, which is exceptionally well engraved, is almost certainly naked”(Belgic Coins as Illustrations of Life in the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age of Britain, Proc. Prehistoric Society, 1958, p.49). This one isn’t. Follows’ stater clearly shows that the rider is wearing a short V-necked tunic and pteruges type skirt, presumably made of leather strips which protect the thighs whilst permitting freedom of movement. Robert Van Arsdell (1989), ABC (2010) and Dr John Sills (2017) all say the warrior is holding a spear. But it doesn’t look long enough to be a spear. We agree with Allen (1958) that the horseman is a javelin-thrower not a lancer and that he’s about to hurl a gaesum (javelin), “the Celtic weapon par excellence” as Allen calls it. Another fascinating feature of Follows’ excessively rare stater is that the horse appears to have short antlers or a dressage plume; this probably wasn’t intentional, more likely the result of an engraver correcting a die flaw. Not in ABC, Van Arsdell, BMC, Spink, nor Divided Kingdoms.