Info

Type Number

There are 999 ABC types, which are numbered from ABC 1 to ABC 3008. They are numbered sequentially with two unused numbers between each defined type, so that new types can be added using unused numbers. From the time of publication in 2010, some new types have been identified, which will soon be included here. The type numbers found here are the same as in the printed ABC, but please be aware that the data have been edited from the original published version (e.g. descriptions, spellings).

Object Type

Refers to the object type referenced by the typology, e.g., 'coin'.

Date Range

The date ranges of these coin types are based on data that are variably reliable. Some date ranges originally published in ABC have been edited to reflect new data. More information about these dates can be found here.

Denomination

The denominations of the coins both made in and imported to Britain. The denominations are essentially our constructs, as we do not know what they were called in the Iron Age. New denomination IDs have been made for the Iron Age coinage in Nomisma, which are used here.

Manufacture

This refers to the technique used to create the coin type, mainly to distinguish between those that were struck (majority) and those that were cast.

Material

The material of the coins is not qualified. It includes gold, silver and bronze, but does not include more details about the material composition (e.g. ‘debased’), which should be included in individual specimen records.

Region

The regional delineations are very fuzzy. The geographical names are not based on current geographical/political boundaries, but on the distribution of Iron Age coins. For example, ‘South Western’ does not refer to the southwest counties of England but to the southwest coin producing area of Britain. For the purposes of linked data, we have had to use the Roman term ‘Britannia’, but this is not an assertion that we believe Britain was called this during the pre-Roman Iron Age.

Authority

The majority of references to ‘tribes’ in Britain come from written sources outside of Britain, which were sometimes written much later than the period of British coin production and use. Whether or not these names can be projected onto the past is highly debateable. For example, we use ‘Victis’ for the Isle of Wight, which is a Roman name for the island, but we do not use Vectuarii, which is a tribe first mentioned in Bede in AD 723. Overall, we use the term ‘tribe’ very loosely here, mainly for the purpose of connecting datasets and not with an intention to define bounded groups that cannot be identified archaeologically. This approach differs from the ABC, which sees the issuing authority as a ruler, not a tribe. Some spellings have also been altered from the ABC, e.g. Cantiaci instead of Cantii and Regini instead of Regni.

Ruler

There are only a handful of known individuals known from Iron Age Britain as defined by written sources (e.g. Adminius, Caratacus, Commius, Cunobelin, Dubnovellaunos, Tincomarus, Verica). All other individuals are hypothetical. The names included in this field are based on inscriptions (see Legend) – some undoubtedly refer to ‘rulers’, but most are unknown to us. They could refer to, for example, moneyers, minters, important people, traders.

Legend

We use this field for inscriptions. The majority of text on British Iron Age coins does not follow the contour of the coin and the inscriptions are often incomplete.

Obv./Rev. Type

The published descriptions of the types have been edited in this version. Due to the often-enigmatic quality of the imagery on Iron Age coins, we have opted to leave motif definitions open for debate.

Type Series

The typological reference work from which the coin type is derived. In this case, Ancient British Coins as expressed as a Nomisma.org URI.

Reference

These include the original references listed for the type from the ABC publication; some further references have been added.

Related type

A number of typologies of British Iron Age coins exist, which you can use to search this site (results are based on the concordance published in ABC). These include: Van Arsdell’s Celtic Coinage of Britain (1989), Hobbs’ British Iron Age Coins in the British Museum (1996) and Spink’s Coins of England & the United Kingdom (Seaby 2010).

The IACB website supports the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). The PAS seeks to transform knowledge and understanding of the archaeology and history of England and Wales through the recording of archaeological finds discovered by the public. The PAS database holds records of archaeological finds discovered by members of the public in England and Wales. Finders of Iron Age coins are strongly encouraged to record their discoveries with the scheme, which is administered by the British Museum and National Museum Wales: https://finds.org.uk/. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, all finders of groups of coins from the same finds, over 300 years old, have a legal obligation to report such items under the Treasure Act 1996. Separate legislation applies in other parts of the British Isles. For further information, see https://finds.org.uk/treasure.