Towards the end of the Iron Age the advantages of gold coinage as a medium for wealth storage and payment led to it being adopted locally. The first indisputably local issue was the ‘British B’ (80-60 BC), which had a distribution centred on Hampshire and Wiltshire. These coins retained the crude ‘head-horse’ designs of their Gallo-Belgic prototypes but had a gold content of around 38%, compared with the 70% of the original.

A decade later an extensive gold coinage depicting a triple-tailed horse was in circulation, as well as some rare silver issues. These were soon followed by a sophisticated gold and silver coinage produced by the ruling elite of southern England, who had realised the potential of coin types and legends (the designs on the coin face) for their own prestige and propaganda.

The first to name himself on his coinage was Commius of the Atrebates, followed by Tincomarus, Eppillus and Verica, who styled themselves ‘Sons of Commius’. Their later issues copied Roman designs and were so well executed and of such fine metal (96% silver) that Roman influence is clearly evident. These rulers must have been among those who negotiated treaties with the emperor Augustus to become client kings. The Claudian invasion of AD 43 brought Iron Age coin production in the region to an abrupt end.