Gaul, the Ambiani AV Stater. Gallic War issue, circa 58-55 B...

Hammer

£340

Gaul, the Ambiani AV Stater. Gallic War issue, circa 58-55 BC. Plain bulge / Disjointed horse right; crescents and pellets around. D Scheers 154; De la Tour 8710; SCBC 11. 6.36g, 19mm

Ex private German collection, Roma Numismatics Ltd., E-Sale 52, 10 January 2019, lot 37;
Ex Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG, Auction 312, 8 October 2018, lot 1991;

These staters were issued by the coalition of Gallic tribes to fund the war against Julius Caesar in Gaul. The blank obverse is likely an indication of the vast quantity that were struck and the haste in which they were made. The Ambiani themselves, to whom these issues are attributed, occupied the Somme valley area and were said to have fielded ten thousand warriors against Caesar. Their chief town Samarobriva, afterwards called Ambiani and Civitas Ambianensium, is thought to have been on the site of modern-day Amiens