Not Purchased But Found Metal Detecting In The UK

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Stunning coin. What is the size and weight and will you be allowed to keep it?

@bonzo, first welcome to CCF. Second, that is quite a splash to make with your very first post. I hope that we see more of your dug coins in future threads!

Stunning coin!....I grew up in this area of England and always remember seeing people detecting and thinking to myself ' What are they looking for'? Now I know! Excellent find..

Interestingly... Julius Caesar describes Gaul at the time of his conquests (58-51 BC) as divided into three parts, inhabited by the Aquitani in the southwest, the Gauls of the biggest central part, who in their own language were called Celtae, and the Belgae in the north. Each of these three parts was different in terms of customs, laws, and language. He noted that the Belgae, were "the bravest of the three peoples, being farthest removed from the highly developed civilization of the Roman Province, least often visited by merchants with enervating luxuries for sale, and nearest to the Germans across the Rhine, with whom they are continually at war"... Ref Wiki

Congratulation Paul

Great find! Thanks for sharing.

The beauty of these old Celtic coins is they tell a story and this one is superb.
If you look you will see a spear against the boar, the spear is not attempting to kill the boar but to guard against it. The Celts believed the boar was evil and destructive to their crops.
So now we are looking at guarding against evil! If you look at the boars feet they are in fact seeds, maybe corn. Below the boar is four suns which represent the four seasons of the year, note the sun rays off the suns changing on each sun. Now look at the boars feet and you will see two lines leading to a set position of the four seasons. So they are telling us at certain times of the year the evil may strike at their crops!
You have four crescent moons at the top of the coin 'look like clouds'.
The celts worshiped the sun gods and the moon gods, well the sun god is on the other side of the coin represented by a horse.
Back to the four crescent moons, each moon has a representative meaning, so the meanings are,
1, Fermininity 2, Woman 3, Groth 4, Creativity
So to sumerise the whole coin story is they are asking the moon gods for help to protect their crops so they can continue to progress and prosper in their lives.
Now this makes me think that this coin is so rare as it could have been minted just as a votive offering to the gods and taken away to be buried around their boundary's on the hill tops 'that's where I found it'.
Just a one hour walk from Danebury #128515;

Wow! Incredible find - I'm jealous. I've always wondered, are you compensated when your find is taken as treasure?

There are things to be found in the ground in the US too. Years ago, I was managing a local coinshop in the midwest. One afternoon a woman came into the shop with a coin, explaining that she had found it while digging in her garden. It was an 1877 (!) Indian cent with a beautiful green patina, the sort of patina you would love to see on a Roman sestertius but not necessarily on an Indian cent. Otherwise, it appeared to be a reasonable F to VF. I considered green patina on an Indian cent to be "environmental damage" but it was still an 1877. I paid the woman what I thought was a fair price. Several days later I sold the coin to one of our regular customers at a big discount, $300 or so as I recall. Our customer took the coin home and scrubbed it with toothpaste (a mild abrasive) until all the green was gone. Then he sent the coin in for grading. I don't remember now whether it was PCGS or NGC but believe it or not, that scrubbed Indian cent came back certified VF20! No "details". No body bag. Straight grade. This is an absolutely true story.

I apologize for wandering off-topic but I haven't been reminded of that story in many years. I couldn't resist sharing.