Catuvellauni & Trinovantes Cunobelinus c. AD 8-40 Biga Type Gold Stater Very Rare

Name: Catuvellauni &amp; Trinovantes Cunobelinus c. AD 8-40 Biga Type Gold Stater *Very Rare*
SKU: IAC178
Availability: OutOfStock

£7,950.00

Code: IAC178

Catuvellauni & Trinovantes Cunobelinus c. AD 8-40 Biga Type Gold Stater

CAMVL inscription in beaded tablet (V and L ligate) with ringed pellets at either end, in centre of vertical wreath of small horizontal leaves either side of a solid line enclosed in round-cornered panels. Heart shaped ‘faces’ and bucrania in opposite angles.

Biga (two-horse chariot) left with Roman Republic-style horses. Large leaf above, with pellet below. Four-spoked wheel with pellets between spokes below. Curved exergual line with inscription below – CVNOBELINI or similar.

Very Rare

A superb coin, boldly struck on both sides, crisp detail.

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ABC 2771 (plate coin); 17mm, 5.25g

Minted at Camulodunum, modern-day Colchester, United Kingdom

Evans: IX.1 (1864, p. 295, pl. IX).
Evans: IX.2 (1864, p. 295, pl. IX).
Evans: XXII.1 (1890, p. 561, pl. XXII).

Van Arsdell Classification: Trinovantian T, Coinage of Cunobeline, Restoration Period (Heavy Staters), Biga Type Gold Coins. Van Arsdell lists two variants:
VA 1910 – 01: Pellet below tail and below leaf. This is Sills DK 547, Sills DK 548 and Chris Rudd’s ‘Two Dots’.
VA 1910 – 02: No pellet below tail nor below leaf. This is Sills DK 549.

Rainer Kretz, “The biga gold of Cunobelinus”, BNJ 80, 2010:

Kretz Type A (Early) A4 (Bucranium type; Sills DK 548): Obverse as A3 but two bucrania instead of V-shapes, neat CAMVL (V and L ligate). Reverse as A2, but no pellet in front of horses and lower edge of leaf concave.

Sills Biga (9 obverse, 13 reverse dies): North Thames Coinage; Type: Cunobelinus; Staters: Class 1 – Biga. Similar to Tasciovanos’s Rigon (ABC 2577) and might be contemporary. The biga is from Republican denarii but also Eppillus’s Chariot (ABC 417), and could be one of several Cantian influences on north Thames coinage. The leaf may be a Trinovantian emblem, seen also on Addedomaros’s Shell (ABC 2508) and Dubnovellaunos’s god (such as ABC 2389).

The equivalent quarter is the Biga (ABC 2807).

Sills chronology: Gallo-Belgic Ca – British G (Early Clacton) / Aa Westerham – British La (Whaddon Chase) – British Lb (Westbury) – Addedomaros – Dubnovellaunos – Tasciovanos – Cunobelinus (Biga – Linear – Wild – Plastic – Classic).

Provenance

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

Buckland Dix & Wood auction Sept 1994, lot 12. Kretz early type Class A4. CCI 94.1254. ABC plate coin. Spink COE 2026 plate coin (280) VA 1910-1

This coin comes with a previous label.

Cunobelin (c. AD 10–40)

Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, based on his extensive bronze coinage Cunobelin appears to have been a son of Tasciovanos – where he is often styled ‘CVNOBELINI TASCIOVANI F’ (Cunobelin, Son of Tasciovanos). Writing in the early 1st century AD, the Roman historian Suetonius erroneously refers to Cunobelin as ‘Brittanorum Rex’ – King of the Britons. While this may exaggerate his power and influence somewhat, it is evident that he was viewed by the Romans as a key figure within the region. He was potentially sponsored or endorsed in some way by Rome’s first emperor, Augustus. Indeed, like Verica, many of his coins (especially those of silver and bronze) show high levels of classical influence.

As a ruler in his own right, Cunobelin’s first act seems to have been to finish the task begun by his father, definitively exerting control over both Camulodunon and the Trinovantian territory surrounding it. Numismatic evidence for this can be found in the prolific quantities of gold staters and quarter-staters he struck at the settlement, which depict a corn-ear flanked by the inscription ‘CAMV’. Having solidified his holdings north of the Thames, it seems that Cunobelin extended his influence into Kent. Indeed, many of his coins are found there, as are those of his probable son – Adminius (Amminus). The subsequent power vacuum caused by his death in AD 40, followed by a brief period of instability which seems to have manifested across much of eastern and southern Britain, would be quickly filled following the Claudian invasion of AD 43 – an event which changed Britain forever.

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