Stater 'Durotrigan E'

The Durotriges, occupying what is now Dorset and parts of Somerset, continued striking silver-bearing coinage well after neighboring tribes had abandoned the practice under Roman economic pressure. By the time this type was being produced, the silver content had degraded so severely through successive debasements that some late examples are effectively bronze washed with trace billon — the tribe apparently unwilling or unable to source adequate bullion as the conquest disrupted traditional trade networks with Armorica.

Caesar's campaigns in Gaul between 58 and 51 BC effectively severed the cross-Channel exchange routes that had supplied much of southern Britain's silver. The Durotriges held out against Roman control longer than most tribes in the south, likely resisting until Vespasian's campaign of around 43–47 AD.