Verica Selsey Crescents. Sills class 1, dies 1/1. c.AD10-40. Gold quarter stater. 9mm. 1.17g. COM.F in tablet, crescent above and below with pellet triad on ends./ Reined horse left, VIR above, 8-spoked wheel below. ABC 1196, VA 465, BMC 1177-78, DK 369, S 123. CCI 20.0415 (this coin). Near EF, neat flan of rose gold, well centred obverse, bold crescents. Ex John Follows collection. Found South Marston, Wiltshire, 7 August 2018. EXTREMELY RARE only nine others recorded, including two lesser specimens in the British Museum. Only the second we’ve had.

This is one of the earliest, rarest and most keenly desired of King Verica’s twelve quarters staters (ABC lists eight, DK lists twelve). And it is one of the most unusual because it shows two gold neck torcs, symbolising royalty and divinity, and a spoked wheel, normally associated with the coins of King Commios. Dr John Sills says: “The Crescents/Wheel obverse has COM F in an incuse tablet, as on class 1 and 4 staters, with a bold solid line crescent above and below, each end of which terminates in a pellet triangle; the whole is set against an otherwise plain field with no border. The reverse has an eight-spoked wheel below a left-facing horse, with VIR above; the pronounced arc of the reins has more in common with late Tincomarus and class 1 Verica staters than later issues. The comparative rarity of the type may be due to its almost total absence from Wanborough, with only one possible example known from the temple site. Its archaic style compared to other quarter staters issues suggests that it equates to class 1 Warrior Star staters [ABC 1187].” Divided Kingdoms, p.380). The British Museum has only two specimens, both lightweight and sea-worn, picked up from the beach by Ernest Willett’s father near Medmerry Farm, Selsey, West Sussex, around 1873. It’s 23 years since we first had a Verica Selsey Crescents quarter stater and this is one of the finest known – finer than our ABC plate coin, which we sold in 1997.