Bronze Unit Hengistbury V-Type

The Durotriges of southwestern Britain present one of the more striking cases of deliberate monetary debasement in the pre-Roman Celtic world. Starting from a base of Gallo-Belgic gold staters, their coinage progressively shed precious metal content over generations — gold giving way to silver, silver to debased billon, and finally to cast bronze units like this one. By the time pieces of this type were produced, the original prototype was barely recognizable. The bronze casting rather than striking is itself diagnostic: the tribe had largely abandoned die-struck production by this terminal phase.