Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T17:18:24.533Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cunobelinus' Bronze Coinage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2013

Francis M. Morris
Francis M. Morris*
Affiliation:
Oxford [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Cunobelinus was the most significant figure in Britain during the decades leading up to the Roman invasion, though his reign has received relatively little attention. Cunobelinus' coinage is of great importance to understanding the socio-political structure of South-East Britain prior to the Roman invasion and whilst studies of his gold and silver have been published in previous editions of Britannia (Allen 1975; de Jersey 2001), his bronzes have been subject to surprisingly little work, particularly considering that they are by far the most common struck bronze issues known from Iron Age Britain, with a total of 2,608 examples currently recorded in the Celtic Coin Index and on the PAS database combined. This study proposes a broad typological scheme with which Cunobelinus' bronzes can be ordered and demonstrates that, like Cunobelinus' silver, but unlike his gold, they can be divided into three regional groupings, which it can be argued correspond to three different political sub-groupings under Cunobelinus' control. In addition, the bronze's metallurgy and metrology and the mints at which they were struck are investigated. This article examines the contribution of coinage to understanding Cunobelinus' political history, and how he used imagery to reinforce and legitimate his power in the different regions under his control at different times during his reign. The types of sites at which Cunobelinus' bronzes have been found are also outlined and the likely function of the coins discussed.

Keywords

Iron AgecoinagebronzestypologymintsCunobelinusTasciovanusCamulodunum
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 44 , November 2013 , pp. 27 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2013. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aarts, J., and Roymans, N. 2009: ‘Tribal emission or imperial coinage? Ideas about the production and circulation of the so-called AVAVCIA coinages in the Rhineland’, in Van Heesch and Heeren 2009, 1–17Google Scholar
Allen, D.F. 1944: ‘The Belgic dynasties of Britain and their coins’, Archaeologia 90, 1–46 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, D.F. 1958: ‘Belgic coins as illustrations of life in the late pre-Roman Iron Age of Britain’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 24, 43–63 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, D.F. 1960. ‘The origins of coinage in Britain: a reappraisal’, in Frere, S.S. (ed.), Problems of the Iron Age in Southern Britain, London, 97–308 Google Scholar
Allen, D.F. 1964: ‘Celtic coins from the Romano-British temple at Harlow, Essex’, British Numismatic Journal 33, 1–6 Google Scholar
Allen, D.F. 1967: ‘Celtic coins from the Romano-British temple at Harlow, Part II’, British Numismatic Journal 36, 1–7 Google Scholar
Allen, D.F. 1968: ‘Celtic coins from the Romano-British temple at Harlow, Part III’, British Numismatic Journal 37, 1–6 Google Scholar
Allen, D.F. 1975: ‘Cunobelin's gold’, Britannia 6, 1–19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belien, P. 2009: ‘Authorized or tolerated? Some new perspectives on the Germanus Indutillil. series’, in Van Heesch and Heeren 2009, 31–51Google Scholar
Biddulph, E., Seager Smith, R., and Schuster, J. 2011: Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley — CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent: The Late Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval Landscape, Volume 2: Late Iron Age to Roman Finds Reports, Oxford Wessex Archaeology Monograph 1, SalisburyGoogle Scholar
Brown, R.A. 1986: ‘The Iron Age and Romano-British settlement at Woodcock Hall, Saham Toney, Norfolk’, Britannia 17, 1–58 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryant, S.R. 2007: ‘Central places or special places? The origins and development of “oppida” in Hertfordshire’, in Haselgrove and Moore 2007, 62–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, P.J. 1994: Roman Coinage in Britain, Shire Archaeology (3rd edn), Princes Risborough Google Scholar
Clogg, P., and Haselgrove, C. 1995: ‘The composition of Iron Age struck “bronze” coinage in eastern England’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 14, 41–62 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collis, J. 1971: ‘Functional and theoretical interpretations of British coinage’, World Archaeology 3, 71–84 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collis, J. 1974: ‘A functional approach to pre-Roman coinage’, in Casey, J. and Reece, R.M., Coins and the Archaeologist, BAR 4, Oxford, 1–11 Google Scholar
Collis, J. 1981: ‘Coinage, oppida, and the rise of Belgic power: a reply’, in B.W. Cunliffe (ed.), Coinage and Society in Britain and Gaul, CBA Research Report 38, London, 53–5Google Scholar
Cottam, E., de Jersey, P., Rudd, C., and Sills, J. 2010: Ancient British Coins, Aylsham Google Scholar
Creighton, J. 2000: Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain, Cambridge CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunliffe, B.W. 2005: Iron Age Communities in Britain: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC until the Roman Conquest (4th edn), London Google Scholar
Curteis, M. 1996: ‘An analysis of the circulation patterns of Iron Age coins from Northamptonshire’, Britannia 27, 17–42 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curteis, M. 2005: ‘Ritual coin deposition on Iron Age settlements in the south Midlands’, in Haselgrove and Wigg-Wolf 2005a, 207–25Google Scholar
Curteis, M. 2006: ‘Distribution and ritual deposition of Iron Age coins in the South Midlands’, in de Jersey 2006, 61–79Google Scholar
Davies, J. 2009. The Land of Boudica: Prehistoric and Roman Norfolk, Oxford Google Scholar
de Jersey, P. 2001: ‘Cunobelin's silver’, Britannia 32, 1–44 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Jersey, P. 2004: ‘Sam’, Chris Rudd List 74, 2–4 Google Scholar
de Jersey, P. 2005: ‘Ancient British Kings: Dubnovellaunos’, Chris Rudd List 82, 2–4 Google Scholar
de Jersey, P. (ed.) 2006: Celtic Coinage: New Discoveries, New Discussion, BAR International Series S1532, Oxford CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Jersey, P. forthcoming: Coin Hoards in Iron Age Britain Google Scholar
Evans, J. 1864: The Coins of the Ancient Britons, London Google Scholar
France, N.E., and Gobel, B.M. 1985: The Romano-British Temple at Harlow, Harlow Google Scholar
Frere, S.S. 1983: Verulamium Excavations Volume II, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 41, LondonGoogle Scholar
Fulford, M.G., and Timby, J. 2000: Silchester: Excavations on the Site of the Forum-Basilica, 1977, 1980–86, Britannia Monograph 15, London Google Scholar
Garrow, D. 2008: ‘The time and space of Celtic art: interrogating the “Technologies of Enchantment” database’, in Garrow et al. 2008, 15–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrow, D., Gosden, C., and Hill, J.D. (eds) 2008: Rethinking Celtic Art, Oxford CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, D., Plouviez, J., Symonds, R.P., and Tester, C. 2002: Roman Pottery Manufacture at Bourne Hill, Wherstead, East Anglian Archaeology Occasional Paper 9, IpswichGoogle Scholar
Gregory, A. 1992: Excavations in Thetford 1980–1982, Fison Way, East Anglian Archaeology Report 53, DerehamGoogle Scholar
Gruel, K., and Haselgrove, C. 2007: ‘British potins abroad: a new find from central France and the Iron Age in southeast England’, in Gosden, C., Hamerow, H., de Jersey, P. and Lock, G. (eds), Communities and Connections: Essays in Honour of Barry Cunliffe, Oxford, 241–62Google Scholar
Harl, K.W. 1996: Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 BC–AD 700, Baltimore CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 1984: ‘Celtic coins found in Britain, 1977–82’, Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London 20, 107–54Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 1987: Iron Age Coinage in South-East England: The Archaeological Context, BAR British Series 174, Oxford Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 1989a: ‘The Iron Age coins’, in Potter and Trow 1989, 21–9Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 1989b: ‘Celtic coins found in Britain 1982–1987’, Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London 26, 1–75 Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 1989c: ‘Iron Age coin deposition at Harlow temple, Essex’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 8, 73–88 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 1992: ‘Iron Age coinage and archaeology’, in Mays 1992, 123–37Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 1996: ‘Iron Age Coinage: recent work’, in Champion, T.C. and Collis, J.R. (eds), The Iron Age in Britain and Ireland: Recent Trends, Sheffield, 67–85 Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 2005: ‘A trio of temples: a reassessment of Iron Age coin deposition at Hayling Island, Harlow and Wanborough’, in Haselgrove and Wigg-Wolf 2005a, 381–418Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 2006: ‘The impact of the Roman conquest on indigenous coinages in Belgic Gaul and southern Britain’, in de Jersey 2006, 97–115Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C., and Moore, T. (eds) 2007: The Later Iron Age in Britain and Beyond, Oxford Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C., and Wigg-Wolf, D. (eds) 2005a: Iron Age Coinage and Ritual Practices, Mainz Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C., and Wigg-Wolf, D. 2005b: ‘Introduction: Iron Age coinage and ritual practices’, in Haselgrove and Wigg-Wolf 2005a, 9–22Google Scholar
Havis, R., and Brooks, H. 2004: Excavations at Stansted Airport, 1986–91. Volume 1: Prehistoric and Romano-British, East Anglian Archaeology Report 107, ChelmsfordGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, C.F.C., and Crummy, P. 1995: Camulodunum 2, Colchester Archaeological Report 11, ColchesterGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, C.F.C., and Hull, M.R. 1947: Camulodunum: First Report on the Excavations at Colchester, 1930–1939, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 14, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henig, M. 1972: ‘The origin of some ancient British coin types’, Britannia 3, 209–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, J.D. 2007: ‘The dynamics of social change in Later Iron Age eastern and south-eastern England c. 300 BC–AD 43’, in Haselgrove and Moore 2007, 16–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbs, R. 1996: British Iron Age Coins in the British Museum, London Google Scholar
Holman, D. 2005a: ‘Iron Age coinage and settlement in East Kent’, Britannia 36, 1–54 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holman, D. 2005b: ‘Iron Age coinage from Worth, Kent and other possible evidence of ritual deposition in Kent’, in Haselgrove and Wigg-Wolf 2005a, 265–85Google Scholar
Kemmers, F. 2006: Coins for a Legion: An Analysis of the Coin Finds from the Augustan Legionary Fortress and Flavian canabae legionis at Nijmegen, Mainz am Rhein Google Scholar
Kemmers, F. 2009a: ‘Contexts and phases: suggestions for a new approach to Celtic coins in Roman forts’, in Van Heesch and Heeren 2009, 271–8Google Scholar
Kemmers, F. 2009b: ‘Sender or receiver? Contexts of coin supply and coin use’, in von Kaenel, H.-M. and Kemmers, F. (eds), Coins in Context I: New Perspectives for the Interpretation of Coin Finds, Mainz, 127–56Google Scholar
Kretz, R. 1998: ‘The early gold staters of Tasciovanus — a reappraisal of the first series’, Spink Numismatic Circular 106, 2–7 Google Scholar
Kretz, R. 2001a: ‘Tasciovanus’ second coinage staters — a first classification’, Spink Numismatic Circular 109, 234–43Google Scholar
Kretz, R. 2001b: ‘The quarter staters of Tasciovanus’, Spink Numismatic Circular 109, 6–10 Google Scholar
Kretz, R. 2006a: ‘The silver coinage of Tasciovanus’, in de Jersey 2006, 183–212Google Scholar
Kretz, R. 2006b: ‘A new take on Togodumnus’, Chris Rudd List 86, 2–4 Google Scholar
Kretz, R. 2007: ‘The coinage of Rues’, British Numismatic Journal 77, 1–21 Google Scholar
Kretz, R. 2008a: ‘The Trinovantian staters of Dubnovellaunos’, British Numismatic Journal 78, 1–31 Google Scholar
Kretz, R. 2008b: ‘A new biga stater variant of Cunobelinus’, Spink Numismatic Circular 116, 55–6Google Scholar
Kretz, R. 2010: ‘The biga gold of Cunobelinus’, British Numismatic Journal 80, 24–50 Google Scholar
Lambrick, G., and Allen, T. 2004: Gravelly Guy, Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire: The Development of a Prehistoric and Romano-British Community, Oxford Google Scholar
Landon, M. 2009: ‘Making a mint: the archaeology of a Late Iron Age industry’, Current Archaeology 234, 20–5Google Scholar
Leins, I. 2007: ‘Coins in context: coinage and votive deposition in Iron Age south-east Leicestershire’, British Numismatic Journal 77, 22–48 Google Scholar
Leins, I. 2008: ‘What can be inferred from the regional stylistic diversity of Iron Age coinage?’, in Garrow et al. 2008, 100–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mack, R.P. 1953: The Coinage of Ancient Britain (1st edn), London Google Scholar
Mack, R.P. 1964: The Coinage of Ancient Britain (2nd edn), London Google Scholar
Mack, R.P. 1975: The Coinage of Ancient Britain (3rd edn), London Google Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. 2006: An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, London Google Scholar
Mays, M. (ed.) 1992: Celtic Coinage in Britain and Beyond; The Eleventh Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History, BAR British Series 222, Oxford Google Scholar
Moore, T. 2011: ‘Detribalizing the later prehistoric past: Concepts of tribes in Iron Age and Roman studies’, Journal of Social Archaeology 11.3, 334–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, F.M. 2010: North Sea and Channel Connectivity during the Late Iron Age and Roman Period (175/150 BC–AD 409), BAR International Series S2157, Oxford CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niblett, R. 2001: Verulamium, Stroud Google Scholar
Northover, J.P. 1992: ‘Materials issues in the Celtic coinage’, in Mays 1992, 235–99Google Scholar
Partridge, C. 1981: Skeleton Green. A Late Iron Age Romano-British Site, Britannia Monograph 2, London Google Scholar
Pitts, M., and Perring, D. 2006: ‘The making of Britain's first urban landscapes: the case of Late Iron Age and Roman Essex’, Britannia 37, 189–212 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potter, T.W., and Trow, S.W. 1989: Puckeridge-Braughing, Hertfordshire: The Ermine Street Excavations 1971–2, Hertfordshire Archaeology 10, St Albans Google Scholar
Poulton, R. 2007: ‘Farley Heath Roman temple’, Surrey Archaeological Collections 93, 1–147 Google Scholar
Reece, R. 1984: ‘Mints, markets and the military’, in Blagg, T.F.C. and King, A.C. (eds), Military and Civilian in Roman Britain: Cultural Relationships in a Frontier Province, BAR British Series 136, Oxford, 143–60Google Scholar
Rivet, A.L.F., and Smith, C. 1979: The Place-Names of Roman Britain, London Google Scholar
Rodwell, W. 1976: ‘Coinage, oppida and the rise of Belgic power in south-eastern Britain’, in Cunliffe, B.W. and Rowley, T. (eds), Oppida in Barbarian Europe, BAR Supplementary Series II, Oxford, 181–366 Google Scholar
Rudd, C. 2006: ‘The Belgae and Regni’, in de Jersey 2006, 145–81Google Scholar
Rudd, C. 2011: ‘?Anarevito[s], another king in Kent’, Chris Rudd List 115, 2–3 Google Scholar
Scheers, S. 1977: Traité de numismatique celtique II: la Gaule belgique, Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon 195, Besançon Google Scholar
Scheers, S. 1982: ‘Les imitations celtiques des monnaies romaines en Angleterre et leur signification historique’, in Hackens, T. and Weiller, R. (eds), Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of Numismatics. Volume I, Ancient Numismatics, Louvain-la-Neuve, 619–23Google Scholar
Scheers, S. 1992: ‘Celtic coin types in Britain and their Mediterranean origins’, in Mays 1992, 33–46Google Scholar
Score, V. (ed.) 2012: Hoards, Hounds and Helmets: A Conquest-Period Ritual Site at Hallaton, Leicestershire, Leicester Archaeology Monograph 21, Leicester Google Scholar
Sharples, N. 2007: ‘Building communities and creating identities in the first millennium BC’, in Haselgrove, C. and Pope, R. (eds), The Earlier Iron Age in Britain and the Near Continent, Oxford, 174–84Google Scholar
Sharples, N. 2010: Social Relations in Later Prehistory: Wessex in the First Millennium BC, Oxford CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sills, J. 2003: Gaulish and Early British Coinage, London Google Scholar
Sills, J. 2005: ‘Identifying Gallic war uniface staters’, Chris Rudd List 83, 2–6 Google Scholar
Stead, I.M., and Rigby, V. 1986: Baldock: The Excavation of a Roman and Pre-Roman Settlement, 1968–72, Britannia Monograph 7, London Google Scholar
Stead, I.M., and Rigby, V. 1989: Verulamium: The King Harry Lane Site, English Heritage Archaeological Report 12, LondonGoogle Scholar
Van Arsdell, R.D. 1989: Celtic Coinage of Britain, London Google Scholar
Van Heesch, J., and Heeren, I. (eds) 2009: Coinage in the Iron Age: Essays in Honour of Simone Scheers, London Google Scholar
Wellington, I. 2006: ‘The role of Iron Age coinage in archaeological contexts’, in de Jersey 2006, 81–95Google Scholar
Wigg, D. 1996: ‘The function of the last Celtic coinages in Northern Gaul’, in King, C.E. and Wigg, D.G. (eds), Coin Finds and Coin Use in the Roman World, Berlin, 415–36Google Scholar
Williams, J. 2005: ‘“The newer rite is here”: vinous symbolism on British Iron Age coins’, in Haselgrove and Wigg-Wolf 2005a, 25–41Google Scholar
Williams, J., and Hobbs, R. 2003: ‘Coin hoards and ritual in Iron Age Leicestershire’, Minerva 14.4, 55–6Google Scholar
Williams, R.J., Hart, P.J., and Williams, A.T.L. 1996: Wavendon Gate: A Late Iron Age and Roman Settlement in Milton Keynes, Milton Keynes Google Scholar