Potin Unit Rounded Bull / Holman D4

The Cantii occupied what is now Kent, and their potin coinage — cast rather than struck, in a tin-bronze alloy — represents one of the earliest indigenous coinages of Britain, predating the Roman invasion by a century. The technology almost certainly arrived via Gaulish contact, with prototypes ultimately traceable to Massaliote bronze issues. By the time this type was being produced, the form had been so thoroughly abstracted through generations of copying that the original figurative source is barely recoverable.

Van Arsdell 119-03 sits among the later, more degenerate iterations of the series. The casting process frequently left surface irregularities that modern collectors mistake for damage.