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Silver Unit Dead Head Decorative
| Issuer | Iceni tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1-10 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | Talbot MfT#Saham , COI#67a |
| Obverse description | Stylised male head facing right, rendered in the Celtic abstract tradition. The hair is depicted with a characteristic dash-and-dot pattern, and the face features a large oval eye, an open mouth with thick lips, and an outline crescent serving as the ear. An ear of corn is positioned behind the head, a motif associated with Icenic coinage of this period. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Curvilinear horse depicted stepping to the right in the characteristic Icenic stylised manner, with a pellet-formed mane and a large open head. A pellet triad is positioned in the field before the horse. Below the horse, a ringed pellet and a plain triangle occupy the lower field, serving as decorative or symbolic divisional elements typical of late Icenic coinage. |
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| Additional information |
The "Dead Head" coinage is among the most enigmatic of all late Iceni issues, produced in the decades immediately before or during the Roman conquest of Britain. The Iceni famously avoided direct submission to Rome until the client-kingdom arrangement collapsed under Claudius, and these small silver units were likely struck during that uneasy transitional period when tribal authority was fragmenting and coinage production was decentralizing across East Anglia. The Saham Toney area of Norfolk has yielded concentrations of this type, suggesting a highly localized production and circulation pattern rather than a tribal-wide issue.