Cantiaci 3rd-1st Century BC Nipples Cast Bronze Unit

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Cantiaci 3rd-1st Century BC Nipples Cast Bronze Unit

Name: Cantiaci 3rd-1st Century BC Nipples Cast Bronze Unit
SKU: IAC212
Price: 325.00 GBP
Availability: InStock

£325.00

Code: IAC212

Cantiaci

3rd-1st Century BC Nipples Cast Bronze Unit

ABC 174, 15mm, 1.25g

Obverse

Crude outline head right, large pellet in eye ring, no head outline.

Reverse

Crude outline bull of straight lines, indeterminate direction, central pellet, one crescent above. Exergual line below.

Comments

Evans: H8 (1864, p. 123, pl. H).

Allen Type: P1, P2.

Mack 25: Class 2 (small module). Extreme degradation of head, which is now two circles with a pellet in centre. Square enclosing pellet (Allen P).

Van Arsdell ‘Dump Type’. Van Arsdell Classification: Cantian E, Adjustment Period. His corresponding variety is:
VA 139 – 01 (Late Dump Type, 45-40BC, Holman G3/6-1): Obverse head of Apollo now only a circle with a line for the nose, pronounced pellet in centre. Reverse barely recognisable bull made up of straight lines, pronounced pellet in centre of coin.

David Holman proposes a detailed classification in A New Classification System for the Flat Linear Potin Coinage. These coins correspond with his Group G, which derive from Holman Group F.

Holman characterises Group G (Allen Class II) as the latest and most degraded of the series and have a significantly smaller diameter (11.0-14.5mm). Striations appear for the final time in the early stages of the group. The crudity of the designs and number of variants makes detailed classification problematic. Given the variability of the series, Holman suggests a degree of flexibility, where the features given are not taken to be exact. There are four subgroups in Group G, of which this is the third:

Subgroup G3 (including Allen P) has crude, barely recognisable designs bearing very little resemblance to Groups A to F. The obverse is dominated by the eye ring and central pellet and any attempt at an outline head has disappeared, although the facial crescents survive until the very last stages. The reverse is also dominated by the central pellet and the bull is little more than an abstract pattern of lines. There is usually one crescent above the bull. Coins are 12-13mm and 0.9-1.3g.

Next in the chronological sequence is Holman G4. The previous type is Holman G2. The previous group is Holman F.

Provenance

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

M Vosper PT, 12.02.1999 VA137-1

This coin comes with a previous label.

Cantiaci

‘Of all the Britons the inhabitants of Kent, an entirely maritime district, are by far the most civilised, differing but little from the Gallic manner of life.’

Caesar, De Bello Gallico, book V, chapter 13.

The modern county of Kent was, according to the Romans, the homeland of the Cantiaci or Cantii. The closest portion of mainland Britain to the Continent, it is unsurprising that in the Late Iron Age the region boasted strong links with north-east France – a legacy maintained to this day, one could argue, with the continued importance of Dover and Folkestone as key cross-channel ferry ports.

Kent’s earliest Iron Age coins (and indeed, probably the earliest indigenously-produced British coins) are represented by cast bronze pieces called potins, whose alloy has a high tin content. On the basis of single finds and hoards, we know that imported gold in the form of Gallo-Belgic coinage was widely used in Kent at around the same time as the potins.

The somewhat mysterious series of uninscribed Kentish gold, including the so-called ‘Weald Net’ staters (ABC 177/BMC 2466) and ‘Corded Triangle’ quarter staters (ABC 198/BMC 2469–71) were probably struck c. 50–30/25 BC, they perhaps slightly precede a diverse group of uninscribed silver and bronze issues.

Inscribed issues belong towards the end of the Kentish coin-sequence, as is invariably the general case in Late Iron Age Britain. Their production probably began from c. 25 BC onwards and runs onward till shortly before the Claudian invasion. It is worth noting that at this time, Kent seems to have been taken over to varying extents by rulers from neighbouring regions. These rulers in turn came to issue coins in the region, even though they themselves might not originate from it, nor it reflect their main power-base.

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