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Silver 1/2 Unit - Eastern North Thames Sudbury Snakeheads
| Issuer | Trinovantes tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 45 BC - 40 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Silver 1/2 Unit |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A small horse prancing to the left, rendered in the schematic Celtic style with a beaded or pellet-dotted mane along the neck and back. A pellet-in-ring symbol appears both above and below the horse, serving as field ornaments typical of Trinovantian coinage. The horse's body is compact and stylised, with legs indicated by curved incised lines, and the overall composition is set within the roughly circular, irregular flan characteristic of hammered Iron Age silver coinage. |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
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| Mintage | ND (45 BC - 40 BC) |
| Additional information |
The Trinovantes occupied territory roughly corresponding to modern Essex and southern Suffolk, and by the mid-first century BC were navigating increasing pressure from the Catuvellauni to the west. These fractional silver units — the "Snakehead" types named by modern collectors for their distinctive imagery — circulated in the lower Thames estuary region and likely functioned in small-denomination exchange within tribal markets rather than in any large-scale interregional trade. The Sudbury classification places this piece within a geographically defined die group identified through find-spot clustering and hoard distribution.
At under a gram, these were easily lost and rarely hoarded in quantity. Most known examples come from metal detector finds in Essex.