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Silver Unit Freckenham Smiler
| Issuer | Iceni tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 15 BC - 20 AD |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Silver Unit |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A stylised horse advancing to the right, rendered in abstracted Celtic fashion, with an open-form head and a flowing hairy tail. Above the horse, two ringed-pellets flanking a crescent are arranged to form a distinctive anthropomorphic smiling face, which gives this type its traditional numismatic name, the 'Smiler.' A single ringed-pellet ornament is placed beneath the horse in the lower field. The overall composition is characteristic of the decorative vocabulary of the Freckenham group of Iceni silver coinage. |
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| Mintage | ND (15 BC - 20 AD) |
| Additional information |
The Freckenham series takes its name from the Suffolk village where a major hoard of Iceni coins was found in 1885. The Smiler type sits within a broader flourishing of Iceni silver coinage during the late first century BC, a period when the tribe maintained genuine political autonomy from both encroaching Catuvellauni pressure to the south and, eventually, early Roman diplomatic interference following the Claudian invasion preparations.
Die alignment in this series is notably inconsistent — a characteristic of Iceni striking practice generally, not a fault of individual specimens.