A 2,000-year-old Iron Age coin depicting Britain’s first ever freedom fighter has sold for £80,040 to an unnamed buyer after it was discovered by a metal detectorist.
Described as the ‘most important single Iron Age coin ever found in this country’, the coin depicts the leader Caratacus, who resisted the Roman invasion in 43AD, as a naked horseman carrying a javelin and shield.
It was minted in Hampshire shortly before Emperor Claudius sent four legions to raid Britannia and was auctioned at Chris Rudd Auctions in Norwich on Sunday 15.
A 2,000-year-old Iron Age coin depicting Britain’s first ever freedom fighter has sold for £80,040 to an unnamed buyer after it was discovered by a metal detectorist.
Described as the ‘most important single Iron Age coin ever found in this country’, the coin depicts the leader Caratacus, who resisted the Roman invasion in 43AD, as a naked horseman carrying a javelin and shield.
It was minted in Hampshire shortly before Emperor Claudius sent four legions to raid Britannia and was auctioned at Chris Rudd Auctions in Norwich on Sunday 15.
Chris Rudd of Chris Rudd Auctions, Norwich, claimed the price was a world record for a Celtic coin after it had a starting price of £24,000, according to The Times.
The coin is the first definitely known as linked to Caratacus to be discovered.
He was a military commander in the 1st century AD and managed to resist the Roman conquest of Britain for eight years.
Dr John Sills, author of Divided Kingdoms: The Iron Age Gold Coinage of Southern England, said: ‘The Caratacus gold stater is the most important single Iron Age coin ever found in this country, the only known gold coin of one of Britain’s greatest resistance leaders.’
Dr Philip de Jersey, former keeper of the Celtic Coin Index and author of Celtic Coinage in Britain, said the find was ‘extraordinary.’
He added: ‘It seems quite extraordinary after so many decades of metal detecting that something quite so unexpected should turn up, and for a ruler who plays such an important role in British history.
‘The simple fact that it is unique, after all those years of searching and all those thousands of finds, must indicate that it was a rare and unusual coin from the moment it was struck.’
The coin has been recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme of the British Museum and by the Celtic Coin Index at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford.
University of Reading experts have already excavated parts of Silchester – the site of Caratacus’ capital city – to reveal its heritage.
Professor Michael Fulford said the coin added ‘not only a new dimension to Caratacas’ coinage, otherwise found only in silver, but an insight into the resources he commanded at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain.’
He says Caratacus dug or re-dug a deep ditch and rampart 1.5 miles long around Calleva which he thinks was captured by the Roman army, probably early in AD 44.
He added: ‘It seems quite extraordinary after so many decades of metal detecting that something quite so unexpected should turn up, and for a ruler who plays such an important role in British history.
‘The simple fact that it is unique, after all those years of searching and all those thousands of finds, must indicate that it was a rare and unusual coin from the moment it was struck.’
The coin has been recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme of the British Museum and by the Celtic Coin Index at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford.
University of Reading experts have already excavated parts of Silchester – the site of Caratacus’ capital city – to reveal its heritage.
Professor Michael Fulford said the coin added ‘not only a new dimension to Caratacas’ coinage, otherwise found only in silver, but an insight into the resources he commanded at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain.’
He says Caratacus dug or re-dug a deep ditch and rampart 1.5 miles long around Calleva which he thinks was captured by the Roman army, probably early in AD 44.
The coin has now been recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme of the British Museum and by the Celtic Coin Index at the Institute of Archaeology in Oxford.
