Dobunni 50 BC-AD 43 Silver Unit

Dobunni 50 BC-AD 43 Silver Unit

Cotswold Oxo

Moon head right with pellet triads for hair, pellet in ring for eye, cross and pellet in ring below/ Triple tailed annulate horse left

ABC2027, S377, 13mm, 1.11g

Good metal for type.

ex Graham Slater collection.

The Dobunni tribe covered one of the largest areas in Iron Age Britain extending over the western borders into modern day Wales. Some say the pink coloured gold used to strike most of the Dobunni staters is such because the gold was mined in the Welsh hills and had an above average copper content. There are 9 main types of stater, 7 inscribed, 3 quarter staters, one inscribed and an extensive series of units, two of which are inscribed. All Dobunni coins are rare with some being extremely rare. The ruler ‘Inamn’ is only known from one base stater & a unit, hopefully more coins will come to light in the future to clarify his name. One interesting point of discussion is the symbol shown on the obverse of 8 of the staters, I’ve heard to referred to as a corn ear, tree or skeleton, my personal favourite is a tree as I imagine the land of the Dobunni to have been heavily forested back in the 1st Century BC and just about everything was made from wood back then so a worthy tribute to an important natural resource.
The tribes centre was at Bagendon before moving to modern day Cirencester, known by the Romans as ‘Corinium’ or ‘Kironium’,one wonders about the similarities in this name to the Dobunni king Corio.