Iron Age Celtic coins: tribes, staters, and silver units
Atrebates, Iceni, Trinovantes, Durotriges. Iron Age British coinage from c.150 BC to the Claudian invasion — abstract gold staters and silver units.
Iron Age British coins (c.150 BC – AD 50) are the earliest struck coinage native to the British Isles. They’re abstract, often gold or silver, and instantly recognisable once you’ve seen a handful — nothing else in the UK numismatic record looks quite like a Durotrigan stater or an Iceni silver unit.
Where the design comes from
Iron Age British coinage derives from the gold staters of Philip II of Macedon (382–336 BC) — coins which had circulated as bullion across Iron Age Europe and inspired local imitations from Gaul onwards. The Macedonian prototype showed Apollo’s laurel-wreathed head on the obverse and a charioteer driving a biga (two-horse chariot) on the reverse. Successive generations of Celtic minters abstracted the design, removing the chariot but keeping the horse, removing the face but keeping the wreath — until what survived was a beaded crescent of pellets above a disjointed horse.
The principal British tribes
Iron Age British coinage divides into tribal groupings whose territories are reasonably well-defined by find distribution. The major coin-issuing tribes:
| Tribe | Territory | Best-known issues |
|---|---|---|
| Atrebates | Hampshire / West Sussex / Berkshire | Commios, Tincomarus, Eppillus, Verica gold and silver |
| Trinovantes | Essex / south Suffolk | Tasciovanus, Cunobelin (Camulodunum) |
| Catuvellauni | Hertfordshire / Bedfordshire / Buckinghamshire | Tasciovanus, Cunobelin — sometimes overlapping with Trinovantian issues |
| Iceni | Norfolk / Suffolk | Antedi, Ecen, Esuprasto, Prasutagus silver units; named after Iceni queen Boudica's people |
| Durotriges | Dorset / south Somerset | Cast bronze, debased silver staters; non-naming style |
| Cantii | Kent | Vosenios, Dubnovellaunos, Eppillus |
| Dobunni | Gloucestershire / Worcestershire / Somerset | Bodvoc, Anted, Comux, Catti |
| Corieltauvi | East Midlands | Esuprasu, Volisios — abstract horse types |
| Brigantes | Yorkshire / Northumbria | Limited coinage; later issues |
The four denominations
- Gold stater: 17–20 mm, 4–6 g (early full-weight); later debased. The high-status denomination, often carrying tribal leader names.
- Gold quarter-stater: 10–12 mm, 1–1.5 g. A common detectorist gold find — small, recognisable, more frequent than full staters.
- Silver unit: 13–15 mm, 1–1.5 g. Iceni and Dobunnic silver units are particularly common in detector finds across their respective territories.
- Cast bronze / silver-washed bronze: Durotrigan specialty. Crude cast staters, often heavily debased; the “Durotrigan starfish” type is the diagnostic.
Reading a Celtic coin
Three diagnostics together pin most Celtic coins to a tribe and usually to a king:
- The obverse motif. Is it a stylised laurel-wreath head (Philippic prototype)? A bare cross / wheel (Iceni)? A boar or animal (Atrebatic / Dobunnic)?
- The reverse motif. Disjointed horse (most common)? Boar? Bull? Stylised Pegasus? Wheel-and-pellet pattern?
- Any legend. Late Iron Age coins (post-c.30 BC) increasingly carry tribal leader names —
CVNO(Cunobelin),VERI(Verica),TASC(Tasciovanus),ANTED(Antedi),ECEN(Iceni). Even three or four surviving letters usually attribute the coin to a king.
The most common UK detector Celtic finds
Iceni silver units
The Iceni struck silver units in vast quantities from the late 1st century BC through Boudica’s revolt in AD 60–61. Module 13–15 mm, weight ~1 g. Obverse: stylised wolf / horse / abstract face. Reverse: horse with various tribal markers (annulet, pellet triad, branch). Common across Norfolk, Suffolk and east Cambridgeshire.
Cunobelinian bronze and silver
Cunobelin (Shakespeare’s Cymbeline) ruled the Trinovantes and Catuvellauni from Camulodunum (Colchester) from c.AD 9 to c.AD 41. His coinage is the most prolific of the British Iron Age, with diverse types — ear of corn obverse / horse reverse, Pegasus / Victory, bull, sphinx. Module varies, with bronze unit ~14–18 mm and silver unit ~12–14 mm.
Durotrigan staters
The southern Dorset Durotriges struck a distinctive debased silver / cast bronze stater on a non-Philippic pattern — obverse: a crescent of disconnected pellets (the “Durotrigan starfish”); reverse: a heavily abstracted horse with stylised limbs. Module 18–22 mm. Common across Wessex and into Wiltshire.
The Roman conquest and the end of Celtic coinage
Most British tribes stopped striking their own coinage after the Claudian invasion of AD 43. Some Iceni issues continue until Boudica’s revolt in 60–61, after which the kingdom was annexed. The Brigantes and the northern tribes outside direct Roman control continued a residual coinage briefly. By the late 1st century AD the Romano-British coin economy is purely Roman.
Procedural identification
- Confirm Iron Age fabric.Small (10–20 mm), gold / silver / cast bronze, abstract rather than naturalistic design, irregular flan from a non-engraved die.
- Identify the obverse motif. Stylised laurel / wolf / cross / wheel / boar / disconnected pellets.
- Identify the reverse motif. Horse (most common), boar, bull, Pegasus.
- Look for a legend. Names from c.30 BC onwards. Match to the tribal table.
- Cross-reference with find-spot. Tribal territories are reasonably stable; a Durotrigan stater turning up in Norfolk is geographically unusual and worth recording precisely.
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