Cunobelinus B-Type. Sills class 6, Plastic, dies 61/107. c.AD 8-41. Gold stater. 17-19mm. 5.37g. Ear of barley, CA to left, M[V] to right./ Horse galloping right, short dashes for mane, branch and pellet above, CVNO and pellet below, B in front, exergual line. ABC 2789, VA 2010-7, BMC 1813-14, DK 563, S 287. CI 13.0545 (this coin). Good VF, rich golden gold, most of B on flan. Ex John Follows collection. EXTREMELY RARE only nine others including three in museums.

Sir John Evans, the father of Ancient British numismatics, rarely made mistakes. However, in 1864, when commenting on a B-Type stater engraved in P.Morant’s Essex (1748) with the inscription CVNOB, Evans said: “The final B is probably inserted in error” (Coins of the ancient Britons, p.298). But Evans was a big hearted man. When he later described another B-Type from Colchester (BMC 1813) he publicly admitted his mistake, saying: “It now is clear that it was not Morant but I who committed the error” (Supplement, 1890, p.563). The B-Type is a great rarity among the million-plus gold staters that Cunobelinus struck. Only four others have been offered for public sale, three of them by us. Follows’ bold B-Type is the first we’ve had in our trays for seven years (see Chris Rudd List 128, March 2013, No.47, £3,500). Who knows when we’ll see the next? Published by Dr John Sills in Divided Kingdoms, p.682 (this coin).