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An Analysis of the Circulation Patterns of Iron Age Coins from Northamptonshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Mark Curteis
Affiliation:
Northampton Museums and Art Gallery

Extract

Over recent years Northampton Museums and Art Gallery has built up a good working-relationship with many metal detector users, operating within the Northamptonshire county boundaries. This has led to a marked increase in the reporting of Iron Age coins to the Museum for research and study. Of the 236 coins recorded from the county to date, 56 per cent have been reported since 1980. Of these, 75 per cent (or 100 coins) have been reported since 1990 (when this author started work at the Museum).

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 27 , November 1996 , pp. 17 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Mark Curteis 1996. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 For example: R.D. Van Arsdell, Celtic Coinage of Britain (1989); Haselgrove, C.C., Iron Age Coinage in South-East England, BAR 174 (1987)Google Scholar; Mays, M. (ed.), Celtic Coinage: Britain and Beyond, BAR 222 (1992).Google Scholar

2 Main sources are: D.F. Allen, ‘The origins of coinage in Britain: a reappraisal’, in S.S. Frere (ed.), Problems of the Iron Age in Southern Britain, London Inst. Arch. Occ. Paper 11 (1960), 145–308; C.C. Haselgrove, Supplementary Gazetteer of Findspots of Celtic Coins in Britain, London Inst. Arch. Occ. Paper 11a (1977); idem, ‘Celtic coins found in Britain 1977–82’, Bull. Inst. Arch. Land, xx (1984), 107–54; idem, ‘Celtic coins found in Britain 1982–1987’, Bull. Inst. Arch. Lond. xxvi (1989), 1–75; Celtic Coin Index; Northants Sites and Monuments Record; Northampton Museums parish records.

3 The list produced at the end of this paper is a summary. Full details of coin weight, coin diameter, year found, grid reference, museum enquiry number, and other references are held by Northampton Museum and Art Gallery. They have not been included here for brevity.

4 L.C. Sellwood, ‘Tribal boundaries viewed from the perspective of numismatic evidence’, in B.W. Cunliffe and D. Miles (eds), Aspects of the Iron Age in Central Southern Britain (1984), 191–204.

5 M. Millett, The Romanisation of Britain (1990).

6 Clogg, P. and Haselgrove, C.C., ‘The composition of Iron Age struck ‘bronze’ in Eastern England’, Oxford Journ. Arch., xiv.I (1995), 4162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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8 Sellwood, op. cit. (note 4), 193.

9 Millett, op. cit. (note 5).

10 Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 1).

11 The locations of the five major coin-yielding sites are indicated on the map by their initial letter, i.e. W, O, S, D, E, representing Weekley, Oundle, Stanwick, Duston, and Evenley respectively.

12 Sellwood, op. cit. (note 4); Creighton, J.A., ‘A time of change: the Iron Age to Roman monetary transition in East Anglia’, Oxford Journ. Arch., xiii.3 (1994), 325–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Sellwood, op. cit. (note 4), 197.

14 J. Davies, pers. comm.

15 C.C. Haselgrove, pers. comm.

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18 Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 1, 1977), 264–6.

19 A spot on the map marks the findspot of a single coin. Numbers accompanying the spot indicate the number found where this is greater than one.

20 For example: R.D. Van Arsdell and P. de Jersey, The Coinage of the Dobunni (1994), 24, map 19; Sellwood, op. cit. (note 4), 202, fig. 3.11.

21 Hodder, I.R., ‘Pre-Roman and Romano-British tribal economies’, in Burnham, B.C. and Johnson, H.B. (eds), Invasion and Response: The Case of Roman Britain, BAR 73 (1979), 189–96.Google Scholar

22 G.C. Boon, A Hundred and One Coins (1973), class 78–79.

23 After Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 1, 1977), 235–6; and idem, op. cit. (note 16), 45.

24 C.C. Haselgrove, pers. comm.

25 Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 1, 1977), 250–3.

26 Clogg and Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 6), 43.

27 For example: Curteis, M.E., ‘The coinage of Ninesprings Roman villa’, Herts. Arch., xii (1996).Google Scholar

28 Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 1, 1977) and op. cit. (note 16).

29 Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 16), 35, table 1.

30 ibid., 55, fig. 4.

31 Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 1, 1977), 182 and 188.

32 Jackson, D. and Dix, B., ‘Late Iron Age and Roman settlement at Weekley’, Northants. Arch., xxi (19861987), 4194.Google Scholar

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34 See Neal's, D. interim note in Frere, S.S., ‘Roman Britain in 1990’, Britannia xxii (1991), 52–3Google Scholar. I would like to thank D. Neal and R. Perrin for the list of coins found during excavations.

35 Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 1, 1977), 184.

36 RCHM, An Inventory of Archaeological Sites and Churches in Northampton (1985), 36.

37 Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 1), 184.

38 RCHM, An Inventory of Sites in South-West Northamptonshire (1982), 50.

39 C.C. Haselgrove, ‘Kingsholm and Iron Age coin circulation in the western (“Dobunni”) region’ (forthcoming).

40 R. Goodburn, ‘Celtic Coins’, in I.M. Stead and V. Rigby, Baldock: The Excavation of a Roman and Pre-Roman Settlement, 1968–72 (1986), 88–99.

41 Briggs, D., Haselgrove, C.C., and King, C., ‘Iron Age and Roman coins from Hayling Island temple’, Brit. Num. Journ. lxii (1992), 162.Google Scholar

42 France and Gobel, op. cit. (note 17).

43 Briggs et. al., op. cit. (note 41), 44.

44 Haselgrove, op. cit. (note 1, 1977), 184.

45 The author has catalogued c. 3,500 Roman coins from the site. Details held by Northampton Museum and Art Gallery.

46 Brown, A.E. and Alexander, J.A., ‘Excavations at Towcester 1954: the Grammar School site’, Northants. Arch. xvii (1982), 50Google Scholar, fig. 2.

47 Brown, R.A., ‘The Iron Age and Romano-British settlement at Woodcock Hall, Saham Toney, Norfolk’, Britannia xvii (1986), 158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48 I would like to acknowledge and thank Philip de Jersey, Colin Haselgrove, and Adam Gwilt for their assistance in the writing of this paper. I am grateful to the Northamptonshire Archaeological Society for their financial support.