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Silver Unit - Eastern North Thames Dragon Cross
| Issuer | Trinovantes tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 45 BC - 40 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Highly stylised and abstracted anthropomorphic head rendered in the Late Iron Age Celtic tradition, facing right. The design is composed of curvilinear and pellet-based elements, with a prominent central pellet-in-annulet motif representing the eye, flanked by bold raised lines suggesting facial features. Crescentic and lentoid forms arranged around the central motif indicate the brow, nose, and hair or head-dress, with additional pellets and lobed ornaments filling the field. The flan is irregular and the entire composition reflects the characteristic British Late Celtic aesthetic of fragmented classicism. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Trinovantes occupied territory roughly equivalent to modern Essex and southern Suffolk, and by the mid-first century BC were under sustained pressure from the Catuvellauni to the west — a rivalry that shapes the entire output of their coinage during this period. These small silver units were likely used for high-value transactions and payments to warriors rather than everyday exchange, given the impracticality of their size for market use.
Van Arsdell's sequencing places this type among the later Trinovantian issues before the tribe's political absorption accelerated under Tasciovanus and then Cunobelinus.