The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. Despite having details of over 45,000 coins on their database – a good sample size by any statistician’s standards – new coins are being discovered on a monthly basis. Three main phases occur: (1) copies of Belgic designs (2) indigenous British designs (3) and, later, designs influenced by Roman coins (Latin text / Roman topics).īelow is a list of British tribes that produced their own coinage and a few examples of the beautiful Celtic designs contained within this short-lived, but very exciting coinage. This map clearly shows that only the Celtic tribes in South of modern day England minted their own coins. Some were brought by refugees, whereas others were probably brought back by mercenaries and/or imported by merchantsĬeltic Britain – map of coin-issuing tribes superimposed on a modern map.During the Gallic Wars, 58-51 BC, many other Gaulish coins – gold, silver, bronze – came to Britain.Made in Cantion (Kent) c.120-100 BC, they circulated alongside gold coins imported from Gaul.Britain’s first regular home-made Celtic coins were bronze coins copying those of Massalia (Marseilles).The ‘puppet kings’ initially allowed to rule were gradually replaced by Roman governors as Roman colonisation and ‘Roman-isation’ of the natives became a fait accompli. As Roman influence (and domination) grew, the British Celtic coins took on a more Roman character … until only Roman coins remained. Coincidentally, there has never been a wagon or horse grave excavated by Irish archaeologists either !īy the time the Romans invaded Britain in AD 43, the indigenous Celtic tribes there had already been producing their own coins for some time.
It was the Greeks that first described the Celts (or Keltoi) as the ‘wagon, or horse grave’ people.Celtic coins were influenced by trade with and the supply of mercenaries to the Greeks, and initially copied Greek designs, especially Macedonian coins from the time of Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great.Celtic coinage was minted by the Celts from the late 4th century BC to the late 1st century BC.The post-conquest Romans used Britannia or Britannia Magna (Large Britain) for Britain and Hibernia or Britannia Parva (Small Britain) for Irelandīoth the Romans and the Celts initially copied Greek coins and, as their usage spread throughout their respective zones of influence, the coins took on more local designs and features.As Pliny the Elder explained, this included the Orcades (Orkney), the Hæbudes (Hebrides), Mona (Anglesey), Monopia (Isle of Man), and a number of other islands less certainly identifiable from his names.The island group had long been known collectively as the Pretanic or Britanic isles.Albion for Britain, and Ierne (Latinised as Hibernia) for Ireland.Yet he retained the old names for the islands: The Romans turned tribes into civitates, with a Roman-style town as a civic centre. The Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD and this greatly enhanced Roman knowledge of the island. Ptolomeic maps persisted until well into the Middle Ages, as can be seen by the Cosmographia Claudii Ptolomaei Alexandrini, by Jacob d’Angelo (Reichenbach Monastery) after Claudius Ptolemaeus, in 1467
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