Hi Guys....
I wanted to give you an update on this elusive little Minim which I recieved so much
help tracking down... Another couple have surfaced since, so I thought I would post the extract from the
catalogue one of them appears in as It makes interesting reading... ( I
hope this is OK Joe... If not please delete this post...)
21. Verica Lancing. SO8. c.AD10-40. AR minim.
8mm. 0.28g. Insular-style male
head r, with moustache
and long flowing hair combed back from forehead,
beaded
border./
Chubby
horse with beaded mane
prancing r, [
VIR]I above, [F retrograde] and CO below,
beaded
border.
ABC 1289, VA 480 (not illustrated),
BMC—, S 142 (not illustrated).
VF/Good VF,
good weight,
toned silver, male profile visible, bonny
horse,
sharpCO. First we’ve
had and first we’ve seen offered for sale.
RRRR only two others in CCI, both in museum
Our description of this fascinating and most elusive little coin
is based mainly on the images in Ancient British Coins (
ABC1289, p.74), because it is a
type that has rarely been illustrated
and because the
obverse of ours doesn’t show the full
head. The
head is particularly interesting and appears to be that of an
ancient Briton, perhaps even a mini-portrait of Verica himself.
Dr Simon
Bean describes the
head as ‘moustached’ and,
looking again at the photo of
ABC 1289, I think he’s right. My
guess is that this Verica
head may have been copied from the socalled
Vercingetorix
head on a
Roman Republican silver
denarius of L.Hostilius Saserna, 48 BC (
Sear RCV 418,
RRC448/2).
Precisely how many specimens of the Verica Lancing
minim have been discovered and are
still around is uncertain.
According to the CCI there are only two others apart from ours
– CCI 91.0039 (FL 573), 0.26g, found near Chichester in
1990, and CCI 92.0533 (FL 616 =
ABC 1289), 0.28g, found
near Chichester in 1992, both in the
Ian Finney
collection and
both now in Birmingham Museum and Art
Gallery (see David
Symonds, Num. Circ. May 191, p.113, fig. 3, and July 1993,
p.188-189, fig. 5).
Robert Van Arsdell (1989) classes the
typeas ‘very
rare’ (16-30 recorded) and says: “Reports of many finds
at Wanborough, but cannot be confirmed.
Rarity provided via
trade survey” (
Celtic Coinage of
Britain, p.159). But I find this
hard to believe; if 16-30
had been found at Wanborough,
Surrey, 1984-85, where did they all go? Why haven’t we seen
any over the past 25 years? Why doesn’t Bob list any in
hisWanborough estimates (1989, p.543-544)? Why doesn’t Simon
Bean mention any in
his Wanborough estimates (2000, p.275-
277)? And why hasn’t the CCI picked up any more?
Evans p.184
The only other Verica Lancing minim I know about (apart
from ours and Finney’s two) is the one that came out of the
Lancing Down
hoard, Sussex, in 1838, illustrated by a woodcut
in John
Evans, The Coins of the Ancient Britons, 1864, p.184.
I don’t know where this coin is now. Our specimen was
unearthed by a metal detectorist near Findon,
West Sussex,
only a few miles from Lancing Down. Finally, I should point
out that the
horse on our Verica Lancing minim appears to
have three forelegs. Or is one of them a letter I?
