Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Potin Unit Curved Bull / Holman B5
| Issuer | Cantii tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 115 BC - 100 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.1 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (115 BC - 100 BC) - B5/1-1: Head left, crude, neck line, lower crescent of profile absent. Bull left, degenerate, barely recognisable, two front legs - ND (115 BC - 100 BC) - B5/1-2: Head left, crude, no neck line, lower crescent of profile absent. Bull left, degenerate, barely recognisable, one front leg - ND (115 BC - 100 BC) - B5/1-3: Head left, crude, neck line, lower crescent of profile absent. Bull left, a curve with two vertical lines below, forked head. Tail a separate line - ND (115 BC - 100 BC) - B5/2-1: Head left, neat. Bull right, degenerate, barely recognisable - ND (115 BC - 100 BC) - B5/4-1: Head right, top crescent of profile merged with head outline. Bull right, degenerate - |
| Additional information |
Potin coinage among the Cantii was cast rather than struck — a manufacturing distinction that sets these pieces apart from virtually all other Iron Age British issues. The alloy, a leaded bronze with tin content, was poured into clay moulds, often in strips that were subsequently broken apart, leaving the characteristic casting flash still visible on many survivors. Holman's classification work on Cantian potins remains the definitive sorting framework, with the B5 designation isolating a specific bull-type subgroup by flan shape and design degradation stage.
Van Arsdell 110-01 sits near the beginning of the sequence, before the image collapsed into near-abstraction through repeated remodelling of worn moulds.