Cantiaci/Trinovantes Dubnovellaunos c.25 BC-AD 5 Lion Horseman Bronze Unit *Excessively Rare*

Cantiaci/Trinovantes Dubnovellaunos c.25 BC-AD 5 Lion Horseman Bronze Unit

Lion left with head turned back, pentagram below/Horseman right holding carnyx. DVBN below

Excessively Rare

ABC354 (Plate coin); 15mm, 2.70g

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A wonderful example, dark green surfaces of a quality rarely seen these days. Good detail from a bold strike and little wear evident.

Sills: The Lion Horseman and Lion Box have a similar lettering style. The Lion Box is abbreviated to DV like the Serpent Griffin unit and the animals on both have fully extended front legs like the Serpent and Pentagram gold. They are therefore likely late issues. The Lion Horseman holds a carnyx, later used on Eppilus’s Carnyx silver, fitting with it being later. Two of four findspots are north of the Thames, and so they may be issues of Dubnovellaunos in Essex (Trinovantes).

Provenance

This coin is from The London Collection of Ancient British Coins. For more information click here: The London Collection – Silbury Coins : Silbury Coins.

G Cottam collection, July 2015. Found Duxford, Hertfordshire, 1993. CCI 94.1182, ABC plate coin

This coin comes with a previous label.

 

Dubnovellaunos (25 BC – AD 5/10?)

Based on current evidence, it seems to be the case that Dubnovellaunos is the earliest individual to be named on Kentish coinage of the Late Iron Age. It has been suggested that he was the ‘Dumnobellaunos’ named in the 32nd passage of Augustus’ Res Gestae, although this is not certain. Other individuals named ‘Dumnovellaunos’ are present in the Late Iron Age coin series from other regions of Britain (e.g., the north-east), and indeed it may be a completely different individually totally unconnected with the issuance of these coins.

‘The following kings sought refuge with me as suppliants…Dumnobellaunus and Tincommius, kings of the Britons….’

 It has been hotly debated as to whether the Dubnovellaunos issuing coinage in Kent is the same as that who produced a relatively restricted, trimetallic series of coins whose distribution centres on Essex. As Kent and Essex share a land border, it is perfectly plausible from a geographic perspective to suggest that Dubnovellaunos may well have been a ruler in Kent who chose to extend his territory and influence northwards. It is certainly true that that the Kentish series of coins struck in his name are much more extensive than those found in Essex, which might suggest an origin in the former rather than the latter. Nevertheless, whatever his affiliation, Dubnovellaunos was out of the picture soon after the commencement of the 1st century AD – his territories potentially absorbed by Eppilus of the Atrebates and the much better-known Cunobelin of the Catavellaunii.

Coins of Dubnovellaunos struck in Kent are the most extensive of the inscribed series to be struck there, including some of the most iconic inscribed silver units in the entire Late Iron Age corpus. These include types such as the ‘Dubnovellaunos Pegasus’ (ABC 315/BMC 2443–44) and ‘Dubnovellaunos Metalworker’ (ABC 324/BMC 2502–3).