Found: PAS 785915 · best-preserved open-licence example · 3D model from its photographsThe coin shown is a plated core: the copper-alloy centre of an Aunt Cost stater whose gold plating is gone.
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3D model of PAS 785915 , made from a photograph by Sian Webb / Derby Museums Trust (Wikimedia Commons , CC BY 2.0 )
Details Design Examples References Ruler Value (members)
Details Free Metal Gold stater of the type, but many surviving coins are base gold or plated ; this one is the copper-alloy core of a plated coin with no gold left on it. No analysis of the type has been published that we could find. Van Arsdell notes that Corieltavian staters keep the right weight but have a low gold content.1 ,2 ,5 ,6 (estimate (featured coin is a copper-alloy core); no analysis of the type found) Weight 4.86 g (this core). Gold and base-gold coins on IACB weigh up to 5.46 g; 10 of 36 recorded weights are 4.9 g or more (mean 5.17 g). The 36 recorded weights average 4.31 g because many are plated cores. Four staters in the Riseholme hoard weighed 4.68–5.41 g. Plated cores weigh much less: 3.71 g (Roxby cum Risby) and 2.9 g for a broken one (Harlaston).2 ,1 ,8 ,12 ,3 (averages calculated here from the IACB weights) Diameter 19 mm (this coin); 18–20 mm on the five coins measured on IACB.2 ,1 Date AD 20–50 (IACB). The finder's record dates it c. AD 10–40, Van Arsdell AD 10–43 and Silbury Coins c. AD 15–40.1 ,2 ,5 ,7 Where struck Not known exactly. Finds concentrate in Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, with outliers in Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, County Durham and Oxfordshire.1 Mint Not known. A Corieltavian mint site has been found at Sleaford in Lincolnshire, but it is not known whether these coins were struck there.5 ,9 Dies known Not known: no die study of this type was found. (searched IACB, Van Arsdell plate 40, PAS records and dealer notes) Estimated output Not known: without a die count no output can be estimated. (no die count published that we could find) Known examples 42 on IACB (36 Celtic Coin Index cards, 4 PAS records, 1 British Museum coin, 1 ABC exemplar ); at least 7 more are recorded elsewhere (4 in the Riseholme hoard, 3 PAS records seen on Wikimedia Commons).1 ,8
Design Free 1 Wreath Obverse A band of oblong leaves (billets) runs across the face2 wreath from Apollo's head on the Greek gold coins that British staters descend from13 Established
Evans described the companion coins as showing 'portions of the degenerate laureate bust consisting of the wreath with billet-shaped leaves, between locks of hair, and an open crescent and ring ornament '4 Established British and Gaulish gold kept the head of Apollo from the stater of Philip II of Macedon and made it more abstract over time13 Context from the period 2 Cross-bar Obverse A straight bar crosses the wreath, with a crescent at each end1 core . Established
Evans read the line across the wreath, with a thin crescent at each end, as part of the same degenerate laureate head4 One reading 3 Crescent Obverse A crescent at the right end of the cross-bar, opening outwards and clasping a ring of pellets1 Established
On the Corieltavian staters the crescents and rings are taken to be what remains of the hair and other parts of the laureate head (Evans's 'open crescent and ring ornament')4 Context from the period 4 Ring of pellets Obverse Inside the crescent sits a ring of small pellets round a central boss , part of the standard design of this type (on the record, 'ring of pellets in crescent'2 Established
5 S-shaped scroll and pellet Obverse Above the crescent, a raised S-shaped scroll with a pellet beside it; the finder's record calls it a decorated 'S' motif2
6 Copper-alloy core (plating lost) Obverse This coin is the copper-alloy core of a plated stater: whatever gold skin it had is gone2 bronze core before striking5 5 Established
Evans thought the AVN T coin he owned 'has all the appearance of being of brass, but probably, when fresh from the die , was intended to pass as gold'4 One reading 7 Lunate horse Reverse A horse to the left built from crescent-shaped (lunate) body parts with a large round head1 Established
The horse goes back to the two-horse chariot on the reverse of Philip II's gold stater, copied and made progressively more abstract by Celtic moneyers13 Context from the period 8 Pellet in the body Reverse A pellet sits at the centre of the horse's body5 Established
9 AVN above the horse Reverse The letters AVN stand above the horse (often blundered)1 2 One reading
AVN COST (or AVNT COST) is read by some as one or two personal names, an issuer or official; Van Arsdell notes Ian Leins' preference for AVN COST and suggests the inscriptions may have meant nothing at all5 7 One reading 10 T COST below the horse Reverse Below the horse runs T COST, often blundered or retrograde 1 4 One reading
Silbury Coins notes that 'Aunt and Cost may be two people'7 One reading Die-by-die notes on each feature Members
Examples Free 9 catalogued
6 shown
3 linked
42 known in all1 ,8
Featured PAS 785915 4.86 g · 19 mm Photo: Sian Webb / Derby Museums Trust / The Portable Antiquities Scheme, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0 For members PAS 865716 2.9 g · 18 mm Photo: Andrew Brown / The British Museum / The Portable Antiquities Scheme, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0 PAS 603523 3.71 g · 19.3 mm Photo: Martin Foreman / North Lincolnshire Museum / The Portable Antiquities Scheme, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 · crop shared under the same licencePAS 241043 4.64 g · 20 mm Photo: Amy Downes / West Yorkshire Archaeology Service / The Portable Antiquities Scheme, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 · crop shared under the same licencePAS 192835 Photo: Wendy Scott / None / The Portable Antiquities Scheme, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 · crop shared under the same licencePAS 409455 Photo: Liz Andrews-Wilson / York Museums Trust / The Portable Antiquities Scheme, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 · crop shared under the same licenceFree: the featured coin. Members: the other openly licensed photos.
See every photo and compare any two examples, die-linked Members
At their sources Photos without an open licence are linked, not shown; the facts are given here.
References Free Public-domain book · Same type Evans 1864, plate XVII, fig. 8, pp. 413–414 Plate XVII., No. 8.
Obv.—As No. 5.
Rev.—AVN - T - and other uncertain letters. Rude horse as on No. 5, but with two pellets in and above the back, another beneath the tail, and a trefoil below the body. Æ. 69 grains.
This coin, which has not before been published, is in my own collection, but I do not know where it was found. It has all the appearance of being of brass, but probably, when fresh from the die, was intended to pass as gold. It is indeed possible that the metal would be correctly described as copper slightly alloyed with tin and gold. The type of both obverse and reverse is much the same as that of Nos. 4, 5, and 6, but the legend is entirely different, though as usual, unintelligible. The only letters that can be made out with any approach to certainty are AVN above, and T below the horse, and it is a curious circumstance that these same letters occur on a small coin in the Hunter collection at Glasgow, with the difference only that the T is beneath the neck and not under the body of the horse. The metal of which this small coin is composed is apparently silver, though it is possibly very base and pale gold. It has a plain obverse, as will be seen by the annexed woodcut, and the horse is also far less rude than on the larger coins. What the object beneath it may be, I cannot say. This same coin is engraved by Stukeley, pl. xvi. 7, in his first Tabula argentea Musseliana. I think the coin must be regarded as the quarter of the larger piece, but I can offer no suggestion as to the meaning of the legend on either of them. Evans 1864, plate XVII, fig. 8, pp. 413–414 · Read it on p. 413 and p. 414 Whole book at the Internet Archive Catalogues and books E. Cottam, P. de Jersey, C. Rudd and J. Sills , Ancient British Coins (Aylsham 2010), no. 1929 ('Aunt Cost Left') · link R. D. Van Arsdell, Celtic Coinage of Britain (London 1989; 3rd online ed.), nos. 910-01 (gold) and 910-02 (gold/bronze plated ), Corieltauvian J · link R. Hobbs, British Iron Age Coins in the British Museum (London 1996), nos. 3258–3260 Spink, Coins of England and the United Kingdom (2026), no. 402 Sources Iron Age Coins in Britain (IACB), University of Oxford: type ABC 1929 (Aunt Cost; Corieltavi; AD 20–50) and its examples list (42 records: 36 Celtic Coin Index, 4 PAS, 1 British Museum, 1 ABC exemplar; CSV export read 28 Oct 2026) link Portable Antiquities Scheme record 785915 (DENO-58AF21), Cotham, Newark and Sherwood, Nottinghamshire; identified by A. Rohde; photo Sian Webb / Derby Museums Trust, CC BY 2.0 (featured coin); Wayback JSON of 16 Aug 2020 link Portable Antiquities Scheme record 865716 (WMID-0EDE4A), Harlaston, Staffordshire; recorded by T. Gilmore, second identifier A. Brown; photos CC BY 2.0; Wayback copy of 11 Dec 2018 link J. Evans, The Coins of the Ancient Britons (London 1864), 'Coins of the Yorkshire District, or of the Brigantes', pp. 404–415, pl. XVII.8 (pp. 413–414) link R. D. Van Arsdell, Celtic Coinage of Britain, 3rd (online) edition, plate 40: Corieltauvian J, AVN COST, nos. 910-01 (gold) and 910-02 (gold/bronze plated) link R. D. Van Arsdell, Celtic Coinage of Britain, 3rd (online) edition, appendix 'Metallurgy and metrology' (themes 4 and 6: Corieltauvian staters of correct weight but low gold content) link Silbury Coins, 'Corieltavi Aunt Cost c. AD 15-40 Aunt Cost Left Gold Stater', code IAC124 (London Collection; sold; page modified 19 May 2026), with notes citing Evans XVII.8, Van Arsdell and I. Leins link Portable Antiquities Scheme record 832758, Riseholme, Lincolnshire hoard of 282 late Iron Age coins, catalogue by ABC number (Commons copy of the record on the hoard's photo pages) link Wikipedia, 'Corieltauvi' (read 28 Oct 2026): territory in today's East Midlands, capital Ratae (Leicester), inscribed coins with paired names, mint at Sleaford link E. Cottam, P. de Jersey, C. Rudd and J. Sills, Ancient British Coins (Aylsham 2010), no. 1929 (cited through IACB and PAS) link R. Hobbs, British Iron Age Coins in the British Museum (London 1996), nos. 3258–3260 (cited by PAS 785915, 865716 and Commons copies of other PAS records) Portable Antiquities Scheme record 603523 (NLM-DF0857), Roxby cum Risby, North Lincolnshire; base-metal core, 3.71 g; photo North Lincolnshire Museum, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Commons copy of the record) link Wikipedia, 'Celtic currency' (read 28 Oct 2026): Celtic gold kept the head of Apollo and the two-horse chariot of Philip II's stater, becoming progressively more abstract link Spink, Coins of England and the United Kingdom (2026), no. 402 (as given by Silbury Coins IAC124: 'Spink COE 2026 plate coin (402)')
Ruler Free Aunt Cost (AVN COST) · c. AD 15–50
AVN COST is the name, or pair of names, on a group of late Corieltavian gold staters, silver units and half units struck in today's Lincolnshire and the East Midlands in the generation before the Roman conquest. Nothing is known of the person or people behind it outside the coins. The inscriptions are usually blundered, and specialists differ on whether AVN and COST are one name, two people, a title or simply letters copied from other coins. The coins were common in the Hallaton treasure and make up most of the silver in the Riseholme hoard .1 ,5 ,7 ,8 ,9
Known for One of the inscribed issues of the Corieltavi of the East Midlands; most of the silver in the Riseholme hoard carries this name.
People Corieltavi : A people of today's East Midlands (Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and neighbouring counties), with their later Roman capital at Leicester; their late gold names pairs of people on the coins.9 ,1
Read more: Iron Age Coins in Britain: ABC 1929 · Wikipedia: Corieltauvi · Van Arsdell, CCB3 plate 40 · Aunt Cost (AVN COST): all coins · Corieltavi: all coins
Value Members Last sale: Silbury Coins fixed-price listing IAC124, 2026-05, £3,250 asking (sold)
Other recorded sales (£3,250 to £3,250), a price estimate and sale alerts One priced listing found (a fine gold coin; most surviving examples are base or plated and sell for far less). ← Previous coin · Next coin → · Sources · Terms · Privacy
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