Dobunni Cotswold Cock Silver Unit

Description

Click here to see a video of this coin. Dobunni Cotswold Cock Silver Unit. 0.97g, 14mm. ABC 2012. c. 50 – 20 BC

The Cotswold Cock was the first of the Dubonnic silver units. This one was found in Oxfordshire in 2018 and is struck from previously unknown dies. It is particularly interesting because of the Catuvellauni influence in the “cabling” on the reverse die.  The way the mane and tail are rendered is commonly seen on Catuvellauni coins, but not on Dubonnic coins.  This, along with the findspot on the very eastern edge of Dobunnic territory raises some intriguing possibilities:

1. That the coin was struck by a previously unknown Dobonnic issuing authority in the east of their territory. This shouldn’t be unexpected as ABC says that the Dobunni “may have comprised of three discrete tribal polities”, that “there may have been a fourth group”, and “more may (or may not) emerge in the future”
2. That the Catuvellauni issued it for cross border trade as part of a polycentric monetary system. That sounds grandiose but it just means anyone could mint coins using the same design, and let the market decide if they would be accepted for use.  It’s common in areas when coins are first introduced and there’s evidence of it in the early uninscribed Celtic coins of Britain
3. That the Dobunni made use of an itinerant die cutter who also worked on Catuvellauni coins. If you look at the number of known Celtic dies and the amount of time we think they were used over, it doesn’t make much sense for each issuing authority to have a fully staffed mint available at all times

There’s unfortunately no way to tell which, if any, of these occurred, but something out of the ordinary was happening which makes this particular coin a bit more interesting than the others.