Silver Shines in Norfolk Summer Sale

Rare silver coins of the Iceni, Queen Boudica’s tribe, performed particularly well in Chris Rudd’s all-Celtic sale held in Norwich, July 16.

A Waveney Diadem silver unit, found at Harleston, Norfolk, in 2019, and said to be the first to be offered for public sale, realised £6,500; a Bury Diadem silver unit, found at Needham, Norfolk, in September 2020, went for £2,000; a Beardie Pipe Pole silver unit, which appears to show a bearded head ‘smoking a pipe’, achieved £900; and an extremely rare Norfolk God silver unit with a sunken eye and shouting mouth, found near Heacham, Norfolk, in 1991, was sold for £550.

“As a Norfolk dealer, I’m always delighted when coins of our local tribe do well at auction,” comments Elizabeth Cottam, director of Chris Rudd Ltd. “Silver coins of the Iceni are popular with collectors because they often display some unusual looking Celtic heads and some great horses. It is also reassuring for a collector to be given precise details of where and when a coin was found. For example, in our July sale an attractive but comparatively common Chute-type gold stater sold for a surprising £1,800. Why? Because it had come from the well-known treasure hoard found at Chute, Wiltshire in 1986, and had been published in three important Celtic reference books.”

The next Chris Rudd auction will be help in Norwich on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023.