Date: c. 200 – 100 BC

Celtic Ring Money – Britannia, Gold plated over a bronze core, in smooth penannular form, decorated at one end), dating from 200 – 100 BC

Description:

Britannia, uncertain tribe, Celtic “Ring Money” gold-plated on bronze core, holes in plating in smooth penannular form, decorated at one end. 2nd-1st Millennium BC.

Near Extremely Fine.

Rare.

• Weight:  2.20 g
• Diameter: 18 mm

Further Reading:

• Blog Post – What is Celtic Ring Money ?
• Blog Post – Why have no Celtic coins been found in Ireland ?
• Blog Post – The Enigmatic Coins of the Celtic Tribes of Britain

Other Examples of so-called Ring Money:

Middle Bronze Age: 1500 – 1100 BC

• (Jewellery, not money, but possibly a store of wealth)
  • Type 1 – Wire coils
    • Irish Coin Daily: Gold Ring (Solid band of gold, thick, oval-sectioned wire that has been coiled three times to produce a spiral ring with simple, unelaborated terminals)
  • Type 2 – Double-wire rings
    • Irish Coin Daily: Gold Ring – Penannular (Double-wire ring with looped terminals)

Late Bronze Age: 1100 – 800 / 700 BC

• (A store of wealth and possibly transactional currency, i.e. proto-money)
  • Type 1 – Thin, single-strand of twisted gold with plain, tapering ends
    • Irish Coin Daily: Ring Money – Penannular (Twisted, with blunt tapering terminals)
    • Irish Coin Daily: Ring Money – Penannular (Cable type, tapering to plain ends) Co Wicklow?
    • Irish Coin Daily: Ring Money – Penannular (Plain type) Co Clare?
    • Irish Coin Daily: Ring Money – Penannular (Twisted type, ending in globules)
    • Irish Coin Daily: Ring Money – Penannular (Thick-walled hollow gold cylinder)
    • Irish Coin Daily: Ring Money – Penannular (Band of gold possibly on a bronze core, ribbed decoration around)
  • Type 2 – Twisted silver, with a gold-plating or wash
    • Irish Coin Daily: Ring Money – Penannular (gold foil, inlaid with electrum, wrapped around a copper alloy core)
  • Type 3 – Two strands of twisted gold soldered together at one point to form a double ring
    • Irish Coin Daily: Ring Money – Plain type, double band, square cut at terminals

Iron Age: 800 BC to the Roman invasion of 58 BC (in Gaul)

• • Celtic Ring Money
    • Irish Coin Daily: Celtic Ring Money – Gaul, Uncertain Tribe (Quadrangular gold ring with abutments in each corner)

Iron Age: 800 BC to the Roman invasion of 43 BC (in Britain)

• • Celtic Ring Money
    • Irish Coin Daily: Celtic Ring Money – Britannia, Uncertain Tribe (penannular gold-plated ring on bronze core, decorated at one end)
    • Blog Post: Iron Currency Bars from Celtic Britain
      • Type 1 – sword-shaped (most common type)
        • Sword-shaped bars had a flat, narrow blade 780-890 mm long and weighed between 400-500 g
        • They show two common attributes of money: they conform to a weight standard and have a standard, easily recognized appearance
        • This variety of bar was used in what would later become the territories of the Corieltauvi, Dobunni, Durotriges and Atrebates
      • Type 2 – spit-shaped
        • Rare, found in the area later associated with the Dobunni
      • Type 3 – bay-leaf shaped
        • Rare, known from only a few Cambridgeshire sites
      • Type 4 – ploughshares
        • Rare, found along the Thames Valley & West Midlands

Iron Age: 500 BC – 400 AD (in Ireland)

• • No Ring Money excavated from a dated Irish Iron Age site (yet?)
  • No Celtic coins excavated from a dated Iron Age site (yet?)