Gallic coin

[aligern]

Yes I do wonder if it could be a modified copy of a Roman or Greek coin. However, the coin sites do not suggest this and even where such models are copied they are often Gallicised to show local kit.

I recall a similar weapon on a Roman tombstone from the third century?

It might also be that the figure is meant to be a god and the equipment is divine or mythological rather like the barbed weapons that Cuchulain  is described as using.

Roy

[Sharur]

The Celtic coins seem generally to be considered as having been based on Greek or Roman originals, but reinterpreted for the "home" audience, and subsequently further modified (to misinterpreted) with time. So motifs that started out in Greece, say, as a head of Apollo on the obverse, and Apollo with a whip in a two-horse solar chariot on the reverse, ends up as a wild-haired face on one side with a lyre hair-grip and a neck torque, and on the other a long-haired charioteer in a sketchy chariot with one horse, brandishing a hammer, by the time it reached the Somme Valley in Gaul.

[Sorry, there isn't a direct link, so you'll need to go here: http://www.celticcoins.com/ , then click the "Coin of the Week" item in the left-hand menu, then click the "2010 coins" button in the main central scrolling panel (scroll down to find it), and lastly click the "Beardless Bearded Head" item dated 11.1.10, again in the main central scroll panel. If you want to see the original this coin seems to be based on, use the "Philip of Macedon" link dated 29.11.10 on the same "2010 coins (of the week)" scroll panel.]

This Chris Rudd site's really worth exploring if you've got hooked on the whole Celtic coins deal (nice to know it's not just me, Roy...), as there are some particularly excellent examples shown under the "Coins of the Week", with descriptive texts, about 49-50 a year though, back to 2003, with very few duplicates. The text's a bit OTT on the "wonderful" side sometimes, but this is a sales site after all, albeit clearly by someone with a real enthusiasm for ancient coinage (he's written several texts, including co-authoring the definitive "Ancient British Coins").

Nice hobby, if you've got several thousand quid a year you're not doing anything else with! The "cheap" coins are around 20-50 GBP each, and the prices go up from there...