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Potin Unit Rounded Bull / Holman D6

Issuer Cantii tribe (Celtic Britain)
Year 95 BC - 80 BC
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Composition Potin
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Reverse description Stylised outline bull advancing left with a distinctively curved body, rendered in the schematic Celtic artistic manner. Two crescents appear above the bull's back, serving as decorative field elements. A horizontal exergual line runs beneath the bull, defining the ground line. The tail treatment and rear leg articulation vary by die variety, ranging from a curved tail to a straight tail with the rear leg rendered as a single straight line.
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Mintage ND (95 BC - 80 BC) - D6/1-1: Head left, no eye pellet. Bull left, curved tail -
ND (95 BC - 80 BC) - D6/1-2 (Allen J5): Head left, with eye pellet, often very crude. Bull left, curved tail -
ND (95 BC - 80 BC) - D6/1-3: Head left, with eye pellet. Bull left, straight tail, rear leg a single straight line -
Additional information

Potin coinage among the Cantii — the tribe occupying what is now Kent — was almost certainly imported in technique from Gaulish neighbors before becoming a distinctly local production. This type, classified by Van Arsdell as 119-01, belongs to the later, reduced-module series; earlier Cantian potins ran heavier, and the progressive weight reduction across the sequence suggests either metal shortages or deliberate debasement as the first century BC wore on. Potin itself — a cast tin-bronze alloy — was never struck on a die in the conventional sense but poured into clay or stone moulds, which accounts for the irregular flans endemic to the type.

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