Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

British Iron-Age, ATREBATES and REGNI, Caratacus, Unit, winged griffin left, cvn above, rev. seated figure right holding caduceus, ca behind, r in front, 1.21g/3h (ABC 2903; VA 2071; BMC 1896; S 321). Good very fine and extremely rare, possibly the best preserved of four or five known specimens £1,200-1,500

Traditionally this coin has been attributed to Cunobelin, including by Chris Rudd in his 2010 Ancient British Coins catalogue. The obverse has an abbreviation of the name Cunobelin, while the reverse was read as cam, a shortening of the mint-name Camulodunum. However, Elizabeth Cottam wrote an article in 2011 pointing out that the letter in the reverse field is in fact an r, giving an abbreviated form of the name Caratacus. This abbreviation is also found on a unique minim attributed to Caratacus (ABC 1382)