Dobunni Anted Rig AD 20-43 Gold Plated Stater Scarce

Dobunni Anted Rig AD 20-43 Gold Plated Stater, Scarce

Tree symbol pellet at base/Triple tailed horse right, ANTED above, wheel below

ABC2066, S379, 17mm; 4.52g

Comes with find area provenance.

This coin may have a low gold content or be a bronze core which would have been plated, or both! The Dobunni seemed to engineer a way of using very little gold but enriching the surfaces of their staters in order for them to appear gold, a tactic which will have hugely expanded the number of coins they could make out of a set amount of gold, but alas (and perhaps to their demise) undermining the fundamental value of their coinage when discovered. Why they did this we can only speculate on but it is a most interesting subject.