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Silver Unit - Belgae Danebury Dragon
| Issuer | Atrebates and Regini tribes (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 55 BC - 45 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A stylised horse, the defining motif of British Celtic coinage, depicted in profile moving to the right across the field. The animal's body is rendered in the abstract La Tène manner, with a flowing mane suggested by a curved raised line and limbs reduced to bold, simplified strokes. Surrounding the horse are multiple decorative infill elements including large pellets, annulets, and leaf- or lozenge-shaped motifs scattered across the field. A large ringed pellet or solar disc appears above the horse's back, a common celestial symbol on Atrebatic coinage. The reverse is uninscribed, and the design is contained within the naturally irregular boundaries of the hand-struck flan. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Danebury Dragon type takes its name from the Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire where a concentration of these coins was recovered, suggesting the site remained an economic hub for the Atrebates well into the late pre-conquest period. Caesar's two expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 BC appear to have disrupted existing tribal coinage patterns across the south, and the compressed date range of this type likely reflects that instability rather than a deliberate short issue.
ABC 896 is among the smaller denominations in the Atrebatic silver sequence, struck at a weight that had already declined from earlier uninscribed issues — a debasement trend visible across southern British coinage in the decades before Romanization took hold.