Silver coin, possibly in the name of Verica
Late pre-Roman Iron Age, early 1st century AD
Excavated on the Kingdon's Workshop site, in St George's Street, Winchester, in 1956
The design of this silver coin, known as a minim, shows the influence of the Roman coinage and reflects the proximity of the newly conquered Roman province of Gaul just across the Channel. The obverse features a cross with irregular figures in the angles and the reverse, some sort of indescribable animal. A similar example is known from Sussex. Verica controlled the area south of the Thames, occupied by the Atrebates and Regni. After being deposed by a powerful neighbour he fled to Rome, in about AD42, to seek assistance from the Emperor Claudius thus providing the emperor with the pretext for invading Britain in the following year.
