Watch List notes:

CELTIC, Durotriges. Uninscribed. Circa 80-50 BC. Pale AV Stater (19mm, 6.16 g, 5h). Yarmouth (Durotrigan B) type. Highly devolved head of Apollo right, with three-pronged spike at lower edge / Highly devolved horse right; pellets and ornaments in fields; zigzag line with pellets in exergue. Van Arsdell 1220-1; ABC 518 (this coin referenced and illustrated); SCBC 23. L. Lengyel, Le secret des Celtes (Robert Morel, 1969), p. 148 = CCI 03.0440 (this coin). Good VF. Extremely rare, approximately 14 recorded, of which 9 are in museums and 1 is fourrée, thus only 4 are known in private hands.


Ex Rudd FPL 124 (July 2012), no. 12 (one of three lots sold by phone bid); C. Hamblyn; Rudd FPL 75 (May 2004), no. 28; André Breton (Camel Cohen [Paris], 14 April 2003), lot 3003.

In the Chris Rudd list, this coin was one of three that were auctioned by phone bid, rather than offered at straight sale. Rudd noted that "this is the only one we've ever had and it is arguably the most famous and best documented specimen." André Breton (1896-1966) was a French poet, essayist, and art collector, who is best known as the co-founder and principal theorist of the post-WWI European cultural movement of Surrealism. He was a friend of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. Breton's coin collecting began circa 1950, and continued until his death in 1966.