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Silver Unit - Eastern North Thames Essex Serpent
| Issuer | Trinovantes tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 55 BC - 45 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.1 g |
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| Obverse description | Stylised annulate horse proceeding to the right, rendered in the characteristic La Tène Celtic manner with body joints emphasised by concentric ring-and-pellet motifs and limbs reduced to a single fore and single rear leg. The head is turned back over the body to face a prominent curled serpent depicted above in the field. Additional pellets and annular devices fill the surrounding field, consistent with the decorative vocabulary of late Iron Age British coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Trinovantes occupied what is now Essex and southern Suffolk, and were among the few British tribes to have made direct diplomatic contact with Rome — Caesar mentions them by name in his Gallic War accounts following his 54 BC expedition, noting they sent envoys seeking his protection against the Catuvellauni. Whether coins of this type were already circulating during that contact is uncertain, but the chronology overlaps closely. These small silver units likely functioned in high-value exchange networks rather than everyday commerce, given their weight and the relative difficulty of producing die-struck silver in pre-conquest Britain.