Made for Trade: A New View of Icenian Coinage

By John Talbot

The Late Iron Age coinage of England has long been recognized as an invaluable potential source of information about pre-Roman Britain, although its purpose has been much debated and never clearly established. Most research using this source material has been either detailed numismatic studies, which seek to categorize and tabulate the types of coin and order them chronologically based on stylistic change, or more general attempts to draw out meaning from the imagery or inscriptions on the coins. In Made for Trade, John Talbot presents the findings of a decade-long investigation that has challenged many preconceptions about the period. The coinage of the Iceni in East Anglia was used as the raw material with a view to establishing its original purpose and what it can tell us about society and the use of coinage in the Late Iron Age of this region. A die-study was performed on every known example – over 10,000 – coins. Each coin was created by a metal pellet being struck by two dies, and the die-study sought to identify the dies used in each of the 20,000 strikes. Because dies wear, change and are replaced, this enabled definitive chronologies to be constructed and the underlying organization of the coinage to be fully appreciated for the first time. It is believed to be one of the largest such studies ever attempted and the first of this scale for British Iron Age coinage. Talbot further explores production, weight and metal content as the coinage evolved, the use of imagery and inscriptions, and patterns of hoarding. These various threads demonstrate that the coinage was economic in nature and reflected development of a more sophisticated monetary society than had previously been thought possible, contradicting many previous assumptions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Release date: Dec 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781785708138

John Talbot

John Talbot completed his DPhil in 2016 at Oxford. He spent most of his career working on the rescue of companies which were in financial difficulty and has also led many large investigations into financial irregularities. His original interest in British Late Iron Age coinage was stimulated by the abstracted imagery seen on the early Staters of various regions. When he started to study the coinage of the Iceni he initially avoided existing literature and endeavored to use the techniques he had developed in major financial investigations to form his own opinions about the organization and purpose of the coinage. He has published a number of papers related to Icenian coinage. Author location: Cambridge

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Front cover: Boar Horse B (A) Stater reverse from die 13; Norfolk Wolf A Stater obverse from die K (© J. Talbot).

Contents

Acknowledgements

List of figures and tables

Figures

Tables

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 Background and introduction

1.2 The broad aims of the book

1.3 The structure of the book

1.4 The Iceni and East Anglia in the Late Iron Age

1.5 The die-study

1.6 Previous work on Icenian coinage

1.7 An overview of the coinage

Chapter 2. The early local Icenian coinage and its predecessors

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Early non-Icenian coinages in East Anglia

2.2.1 Gallo-Belgic gold coinage

2.2.2 British Potins

2.2.3 Roman Republican Denarii

2.2.4 The Ingoldisthorpe coinage

2.3 The coinage of the early local period

2.4 Early local gold coinage

2.4.1 Norfolk Wolf A Stater and Quarter Stater

2.4.2 Norfolk Wolf B Stater

2.5 Early local silver coinage

2.5.1 The first issues of early local period Units

2.5.2 Large Flan A, Large Flan C and Bury B

2.5.3 Smaller issues of the early local period Units

2.5.4 Observations on two larger issues of early local period Units

2.5.5 Half Units

2.6 Unusual Quarter Staters

2.7 Summary and conclusions

Chapter 3. The mints and coinages of the denominational periods

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Overview of the denominational periods

3.3 The Mints

3.4 Mint A

3.4.1 Snettisham

3.4.2 Plouviez

3.4.3 Irstead

3.4.4 Early Boar Horse

3.4.5 Boar Horse B

3.4.6 Boar Horse C

3.4.7 Anted

3.4.8 Ecen

3.5 Mint group B

3.5.1 Early Pattern Horse (A)

3.5.2 Late Face Horse

3.6 Mint C

3.6.1 Saham Toney

3.6.2 Early Pattern Horse (B)

3.6.3 Saenv, Aesv and Ece B

3.7 Local coinage of the denominational periods

3.8 Summary

Chapter 4. Production: metallurgy, weight accuracy, minting and scale

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Die numbers

4.3 Weight

4.3.1 Staters

4.3.2 Quarter Staters

4.3.3 Relationships between Staters and Quarter Staters

4.3.4 Units

4.3.5 Half Units and their relationship to Units

4.3.6 Summary

4.4 Metallurgy of the coinage

4.4.1 Gold

4.4.2 Silver

4.4.3 Tin content

4.5 Relative values of Staters and Units

4.6 The scale of coinage production

4.7 The organisation of minting

4.7.1 Processes of minting and archaeological evidence

4.7.2 Findings from the die-study

4.7.3 Summary

4.8 Plated coinage

4.9 Summary

Chapter 5. Art, imagery and inscriptions

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Icenian numismatic imagery

5.3 The early gold coinages

5.3.1 Obverses of Norfolk Wolf A and B Staters

5.3.2 The reverses of early Icenian gold

5.3.3 Summary

5.4 The early local silver coinages

5.4.1 The head or face on silver coinage

5.4.2 The Horse

5.4.3 Other design elements

5.4.4 The imagery on early Half Units

5.5 The denominational coinages

5.6 Augustan and other ‘realistic’ forms of imagery

5.7 Inscriptions

5.8 Stylistic links between Icenian and other British Late Iron Age coinage

5.9 Overview of stylistic change

5.9.1 Overview of stylistic change: die variability relative to chronology

5.9.2 Overview of stylistic change: faces, patterns or boars

5.9.3 Overview of stylistic change: summary

5.10 Summary

5.11 Conclusions

Chapter 6. Searching for evidence from hoards and coin scatters

6.1 Introduction

6.2. Snettisham

6.2.1 Snettisham – Ken Hill

6.2.2 Snettisham area – Shernborne

6.3 The hoards

6.4 East Anglian Late Iron Age hoards pre-dating the Boudiccan Revolt

6.4.1 Hoards of Gallo-Belgic and Early British coinage

6.4.2 Hoards of early local gold

6.4.3 Early local silver and mixed hoards

6.4.4 Hoards closing with uninscribed denominational coinage

6.5 The hoards of late Icenian silver coinage

6.5.1 Detailed review of Icenian content of late hoards

6.5.2 Roman coinage in the hoards

6.5.3 Relative chronology

6.6 Cessation of Icenian minting

6.6.1 The Hallaton hoards

6.6.2 Fison Way, Thetford

6.6.3 Summary, the cessation of minting

6.7 Other later hoards

6.8 Hoarding relative to chronology and minting of coinage

6.9 Site finds compared to hoards

6.10 The results from the large-scale mapping of the distribution of casual losses

6.11 The location of coinage within the landscape

6.12 Summary

6.13 Conclusions

Chapter 7. Conclusions

7.1 Introduction

7.2 The situation in East Anglia

7.3 Ancient economies and their coinage

7.4 The use of coinage in Late Iron Age Britain

7.5 Developments in thinking about the early use of coinage

7.6 Pre-Icenian coinage in the region and an overview of Icenian coinage

7.7 Icenian coinage production

7.8 Icenian coinage imagery and inscriptions

7.9 The disposition of Icenian coinage

7.10 What was Icenian coinage?

7.11 Was the coinage produced episodically for military or other events?

7.12 The impact of Icenian coinage on society – short-term exchange cycles

7.13 The impact of coinage on Icenian society – long-term belief systems

7.14 Who issued the coinage?

7.15 The social organisational structure of the Iceni

7.16 Links between the coinage and historical events

7.17 What is Icenian coinage?

7.18 Reflections

References

Abbreviations used

Appendix I. The die-study

Index of plates

Appendix II. Metal analysis of silver coinage

Appendix III. Metal analysis of gold coinage

Appendix IV. Statistical summary of die-study and Esty estimates of die numbers

Appendix V. Hoards

V.1 Hoards and finds from Ken Hill and Shernborne in the Snettisham area

V.1.1 The Bowl Hoard 1990/1991 (PdeJ 196.6; Stead 1998, 147)

V.1.2 Snettisham Hunstanton II (PdeJ 196.7; Chadburn 2006, hoard 45)

V.1.3 The Dersingham Bypass hoard (PdeJ 196.8, Chadburn 2006, hoard 40)

V.1.4 Shernborne A (PdeJ 195)

V.1.5 Shernborne B

V.2 Hoards that are predominantly composed of Norfolk Wolf A and B Staters

V.2.1 Sculthorpe

V.2.2 Heacham II (not in de Jersey)

V.2.3 Hoard M (not in de Jersey)

V.2.4 Hoard N (not in de Jersey)

V.2.5 Ashby St Mary hoard (postdates de Jersey)

V.2.6 Lochdales 2007 hoard (PdeJ 305)

V.2.7 Beccles (not in de Jersey)

V.2.8 Brettenham (PdeJ 175, part)

V.2.9 Hoard D (not in de Jersey)

V.2.10 Heacham (PdeJ 185)

V.3 Early local silver hoards

V.3.1 Barham ‘Hoard’ (PdeJ 225)

V.3.2 Nettlestead Hoard (PdeJ 236)

V.3.3 Santon Downham (not in de Jersey)

V.4 Hoards of uninscribed denominational gold coinage

V.4.1 Runhall (postdates de Jersey)

V.4.2 Hoard A (PdeJ 198 as ‘Swaffham’ hoard)

V.4.3 Freckenham (PdeJ 230)

V.4.4 Sustead (previously known as North Norfolk) – PdeJ 197

V.4.5 Dallinghoo (originally recorded as Wickham Market) – PdeJ 227

V.4.6 Little Saxham – PdeJ 235

V.5 The late hoards of silver coinage

V.5.1 Field Baulk (PdeJ 20)

V.5.2 Lakenheath (Briscoe 1959; PdeJ 234)

V.5.3 Fring (Chadburn 1990; PdeJ 182)

V.5.4 Honingham (Clarke 1957; PdeJ 186)

V.5.5 Eriswell (Kent and Burnett 1984; PdeJ 228)

V.5.6 Scole (Burnett 1986; PdeJ 193)

V.5.7 Forncett St Peter (Chadburn 2006; PdeJ 181)

V.5.8 Joist Fen (Briscoe 1964; PdeJ 232)

V.5.9 General Observations

V.5.10 Mattishall (PdeJ 188)

V.6 Other Hoards

V.6.1 Norton sub-course (PdeJ 190)

V.6.2 Weston Longville (PdeJ 203)

V.6.3 West Runton (PdeJ 204)

V.6.4 Eye, Suffolk (PdeJ 229)

V.6.5 Santon Downham (PdeJ 239)

V.6.6 March (PdeJ 18)

V.6.7 Wimblington (PdeJ 23)

V.6.8 Littleport or Apes Hall (PdeJ 17)

Appendix VI. Concordance

Appendix VII. Glossary

Acknowledgements

This book is the end result of a journey that started with a die-study of Icenian coinage suggested by Philip de Jersey, when I was looking for something to lose myself in after the death of my son Martin. Philip has continuously gone out of his way to help me as the study progressed. Other major influences have been Chris Rudd, who has constantly provided me with information and material, and John Davies of Norfolk Archaeology Service, who read early versions for me and encouraged me to finish the study at a university. This book is a revised and updated version of the DPhil thesis, which I completed at the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford in 2016. I owe a huge debt to Chris Gosden, my supervisor, who moved my focus away from purely coinage towards anthropology, various traditions of art, contemporary art theory, ancient economies, and much more during my time at Oxford. Barry Cunnliffe was tremendously helpful to me at Oxford and I am also very grateful for the input of my DPhil examiners Colin Haselgrove and Chris Howgego.

I would not have been able to produce this thesis without the help of a great many other people and in particular I would like to thank: Martin Allen, Bethany Archibald, John Bailey, the late David Blackburn, Billy Bragg, Martin Bridgewater, Amanda Chadburn, Anwen Cooper, Megan Dennis, Julia Farley, Chris Green, Heather Hamilton, Mark Landon, Ian Leins, Tom Lomax, Adrian Marsden, Courtney Nimura, Peter Northover, Vincenzo Palleschi, Tim Pestell, Jude Plouviez, Adrian Popescu, Andrew Rogerson, John Sills, Fraser Sturt, Mike Vosper, Dan Wait and Terry Younge. Also Hannah, Julie, Katie and Mette and the team at Oxbow.

I would also like to thank all my family and friends who have supported me during the many years of this study.

List of figures and tables

Figures

Note: All mapping data contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2012. Soils data © Cranfield University (NSRI) and for the controller of HMSO 2012.

Tables