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Chichester Lyre silver unit
Coin 05 · Southern region: Atrebates and Regni (uninscribed)
An uninscribed silver unit of the Chichester Lyre type. One face is covered in crescent-shaped hair curls; the other shows a horse right with rings, pellets and a lyre-like device.
- Issuer or group
- Southern region: Atrebates and Regni (uninscribed)
- Metal
- Silver unit
- Date (record)
- 50–20 BC
- Catalogue refs (record)
- ABC 650; Bean QsT1–6
- Specimen
- PAS 908611
- Specimen size
- 13.7 mm across, 1.3 g (from the record)
Obverse. Stylised bust right built from crescent-shaped hair curls.
Reverse. Horse right, with a pellet-in-ring, a ring and pellets in front, and a comb- or lyre-like device below (record).
Features
| # | Feature | Face | As-minted evidence | On the found coin | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crescent-shaped hair curls | Obverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | Rows of raised crescent shapes filling the upper and left part of the face. |
| 2 | Lower curl | Obverse | Observed in the photo | Partly visible on this find | A single crescent near the bottom edge. |
| 3 | Horse | Reverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | A stylised horse with a rounded body and long straight legs. |
| 4 | Pellet-in-ring | Reverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | A raised ring with a dot in the middle, at the right of the horse. |
| 5 | Line of pellets | Reverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | Small raised dots in a short line below the ring. |
| 6 | Ring device below the horse ('lyre') | Reverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | A curved ring shape below the horse, joined to upright strokes. |
The found specimen
- Wear
- Light to moderate: the curls and the horse keep sharp edges.
- Corrosion
- Dark blue-grey toning; no crusting visible.
- Strike
- Well centred; parts of the reverse border area are off the flan.
- Completeness
- Complete; slightly oval flan.
These are descriptions, not grades. Thickness in the model: inferred from the recorded weight and outline area, assuming about 10.0 g/cm³ for the broad metal.
Source and licence
Based on a photograph by Simon Maslin / Surrey County Council, via the Portable Antiquities Scheme and Wikimedia Commons (file page as retrieved, revision 924666457), licensed CC BY 2.0. Changes: the two faces were cut out of the photograph, rotated and rescaled to a common frame, and used to make an interpretive 3D reconstruction. Depth, the edge and unseen surfaces are inferred, not measured. The as-minted version is further cleaned, restored and recoloured by us.
SHA-256 of the archived original: 2322d06c978c62334c44454fb13cace2730f8063572c95f8b8ef37e0e79d065a. Retrieved 2026-10-16.