Ancient Coins

Kings of Dumnonia, cast Potin, c. 420-60, diademed and bearded head left, EVI (?) in front, rev. standing figure holding curved staff in right hand and uncertain object in left, chamfered rim, 7.46/1h (cf. Mitchener, Jetons, Medalets and Tokens I, p.71, 83-84). Extremely fine and extremely rare £200-250

The above examples seems to read EVI, conceivably the abbreviation of Erbin (Urban) ab Custennyn, the son of Constantine Corneu, who ruled the sub-kingdom of Cornubia from c. 443 to c. 480 when he abdicated in favour of his son Gerren. He chiefly appears in Geraint and Enid, one of the Three Welsh Romances of the Mabinogion. The reference of Mitchener p.71, 83 [citing 2 similar example legends REX and ALPhO] may refer to a contemporary mid 5th century British ruler named Elafius, mentioned as being regionis illius primus or 'leader of that region' in Constantius of Lyon's hagiography of St Germanus (chs. 26 and 27) and Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England (ch. 21). These two examples found at Billingsgate, London in deposits of c. 420-460.

In 410 Honorius, being pressed by the barbarians in Italy, told the Britons that they must henceforth defend themselves against the Picts, Scots and Saxons; from this time on Britain ceased to be a Roman province. The Brythonic kingdom or kingdoms of Dumnonia survived the post Roman chaotic period in the south-west of ‘Greater Britain’, a region noteworthy for its many hill forts such as Cadbury Castle and high-status settlements like Din-Tagell (modern Tintagel), which were refortified and rebuilt. The capital was almost certainly Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) and the main economic activity was the mining of tin, exported from the port of Ictis (St Michael's Mount). The earliest historical source for Dumnonia is Gildas (De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, 28), who informs us that it was ruled by a tyrant named Constantine, who appears in later Welsh genealogies as Custennyn , son of Cynfawr, and in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, as Constantine, son of Duke Cador of Cornwall, who in Arthurian legend is King Arthur’s cousin and successor.