British Iron-Age, Unit, British Lx [North Thames group], conjoined horses, each looking back, with pellet manes and long, curling pellet tails, cog-wheel between, two smaller conjoined horses below, pellets and annulets around, rev. horse right with ladder mane and pelleted triple tail, pellet in cog-wheel in front, tiny inverted horse behind, boar standing left below, 1.08g/7h (HAMP-FCA2F3; cf. DNW CC2, 5225; cf. ABC 2273; BMC –; VA –; S –). Tiny edge chip, otherwise good very fine and stylistically very accomplished, unpublished and UNIQUE £1,500-2,000

The Hampshire provenance of this coin might suggest that it is the work of the Belgae tribe. The elongated horses on the so-called ‘Kingsclere Horse Box’ unit (ABC 887) are similar, if less stylistically refined. The ‘Abingdon Zoo’ coins (ABC 1001, 1004) show many of the same design elements. These are normally attributed to an uncertain tribe from the Berkshire area. However, the closest parallel was sold by DNW in 2009 and is included in Rudd’s catalogue as ABC 2273 because of its Hertfordshire findspot. The horses on that coin are elongated horizontally while those on the present specimen are elongated vertically but the style and proliferation of animals are very similar on both