CORIOSOLITES

The Coriosolites ‘army of the sun’ occupied Cotes d’Armor, north Brittany, giving their name to the capital, modern Corseul. Main seaport: Saint-Malo at the mouth of the river Arguenon (Aregenon ‘before the mouth’).

Ogmios and Boar. Bulging Eye and V-Nose. Class III. Coriosolites. c.57-56 BC. Silver quarter stater. 11-15mm. 1.43g. Fierce head of Armorican sun-god facing right with anchor-shape nose, three large rolls of hair./ Man-headed horse facing right, arm and hand of ‘charioteer’ above, boar below. LT J 26, DT 2343, CdB Ann.Bretagne 1960, p.88, Pèronne 238. Gd VF, lighty toned silver, bold haircurls, clear horse. Ex Royal Berkshire coll., bt. CR (1993), ex Le Catillon hoard, Jersey, 1957. Extremely Rare until 2012, Depeyrot VIII (2005), no.185, records only seven others.        Was £500. Now only £450.

This type corresponds to Anchor Nose silver staters, Rybot 75-89, War Coins of the Sun Warriors, p.68-70) Coriosolite quarters are much, much scarcer than Coriosolite staters and few have been found in Britain. This coin comes from the well publicised Le Câtillon hoard, Jersey, 1957

This coin was probably minted to fund the Armorican fight against Julius Caesar. Rybot’s book War Coins of the Sun Warriors (Chris Rudd 2018) makes this fascinating, great-value series of staters easy to identify only £15 + p&p from Chris Rudd.