Gold Stater of Tasciovanos

Tasciovanos ruled the Catuvellauni from roughly the late first century BC, his territory centered on Verulamium — modern St Albans — and his coinage marks one of the earliest sustained gold-striking programs among the British tribes. These staters circulated during the period when Augustus was pressing diplomatic rather than military solutions to British political relationships, and several British kings, possibly including Tasciovanos himself, sent embassies to Rome. Whether that contact influenced the increasingly sophisticated coin production of his reign is debated, but the die work from this period is notably more controlled than earlier Catuvellaunian output.