England - Coins of the Durotriges

[bilnic]

I like to learn all that I can about the area where I was born - Bournemouth. There were several mints within a few miles of the town and the oldest is suggested to have been at Hengistbury, which is on the coast at the entrance to Christchurch Harbour. There was also a mint at Christchurch (then known as Twynham) in Norman times.

Back to the earlier period, about 2000 years ago, when the Hengistbury mint is believed to have been active, there are considerable signs of civilisation and the coastal strip between Hengistbury and the Isle of Purbeck, as far west as Wareham, appears to have been a trading area with signs that Poole Pottery was famous even in those days. Within this area, but not as far inland as Badbury, the inhabitants appear to have been traders and it also appears that the Romans were possibly welcomed as new customers. Any resistance to the Romans appears to have been further inland, but perhaps not in the sense of "I came, I saw, I conquered". From the evidence that I have read, the "conquered" appears to be propaganda for "settled", at least near the coast of this part of Dorset.

Historians have given the title "Durotrige tribe" to the inhabitants, but from what I have read they were just everyday people getting on with their lives. If anything, the “tribe†connotation should be split between coastal and inland. References to the Durotriges also living in Somerset seem to be exaggerated.

But there are Durotrige coins. The early ones could have been silver, but this became debased over the years. They are known as staters and there are also quarter-staters. Although they have no lettering, at least we know which is the obverse and reverse as they are convex/concave and the lower (obverse) die was dished to hold the blank, which was possibly a heated blob of metal. Perhaps the silver came from the Mendip Hills in Somerset?

I would like to find a book or other source which concentrates just on Durotrige coins as I feel that a book on Celtic coins would be too general for my interests.

Here are a couple of silver staters (probably debased), which were possibly struck only a few miles from where I was born.

Bill.