Dear Crowbard, herewith, as promised, photographic details of a silver coin I purchased about fifteen years ago. It was sold me as a coin of Queen Boudicca (boadicea), of about 61 A.D. It is an attractive coin of a slightly greyish silver, just over half an inch across. The vendor, who I've rather lost touch with over the last five years or so (the last I heard from a mutual friend was that he was a sick man). I was sorry to hear it as he was a fount of knowledge in the field of antiquities. I hope this is of interest to you; please let me know if you can add to the details I have of the coin.
Warm regards, Mike.
7 comments:
The plumed(Roman)helmet on the strongly delineated head on the obverse and stylised horse on the reverse are typical of the period when trade with Rome was good and on into the first Roman invasion. Are there letters of the Roman alphabet on the obverse or are they floral patterns? I cannot make them out(my eyes are not as good as they were, and they started out myopic). Are you able to discern if there is a legend at all?
The pattern above and below the horse is specific of coins attributed to Boudicca of the Iceni by R D van Arsdell according to yorkcoins.com
I'll put up some pictures for comparison ~ see Carl's Curios latest posting at:-
http://carlscurios.blogspot.co.uk/
Yes I thought the exact same thing, but I was too shy to say it. The only slight difference I would possible make would refer to the spelling of Iceni, because I always thought that it was spelled Icani. Could be wrong.
Hello Paul. Not sure about the spelling - I think it was Iceni when I was a boy, but it could have been Icini (?) These things are altered when some scholar wants to make a name for himself. The Queen of that time, Boadicea, then pronounced Bow-dis- ear) now has to be pronounced Boo-dick-ah. But it matters not; I've now doubt that young Crowbard will tell us the correct pronunciation, and spelling of Iceni/Icani.
At best we must accept the name given them by the Romans in Roman script as we have no indication of them using written records before they traded with Rome. The Iceni or Eceni were a Brittonic (spelt 'Brythonic' in my younger days) tribe of eastern Britain during the Iron Age and early Roman era. Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and bordered the area of the Corieltavi to the west, and the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes to the south. In the Roman period, their capital was Venta Icenorum at modern-day Caistor St Edmund
The meaning of the name Iceni is unknown. Icenian coins dating from the 1st century AD use the spelling ECEN.
I've heard the tribe pronounced eye-seen-eye, eye-cane-eye or eye-cane-ee but the closest pronunciation you'll get to the original is to head up to the Brecklands in high Norfolk and ask an elderly labourer the name of Bower-de-see-yer's tribe. If he says something like Ekk'ny don't be surprised.
The oldest known road in Britain is the Icknield way from the Norfolk heartlands of the Iceni tribe South-West for over 110 miles from the start of the Peddar's Way at Knettishall Heath, near Thetford to the end of the Ridgeway Path at Ivinghoe Beacon, near Tring, a small market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England.
It takes no leap of the imagination to see the name as the Ick'ni eld way (c.f. Ekk'ny) i.e. the old road-way of the Iceni. The ancient route of the Icknield Way consists of prehistoric pathways which were already ancient when the Romans came.
Icken is a surname known in England, America and Germany and probably derives from Iceni ancestry.
There is a small village near Snape, called Iken. The local pronunciation is now 'Eye ken', but I would think it has the same derivation as Iceni?
I believe the river Alde was the Southern boundary of Iceni territory, Mike. Perhaps Iken was an Iceni outpost on the South bank? If that was the case you can see why the surrounding Trinovantes might call the settlement 'Iken'.
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