The Bunnik hoard

44 gold coins, known as staters, were discovered with 360 Roman coins by two metal detectorists in a field in Bunnik, near Utrecht. Bearing the inscription of King Cunobelin they were very likely the spoils of war of a Roman soldier from the conquest of Britain. The hoard would have amounted to 11 years in wages for an ordinary Roman soldier. The Celtic king also known as Cunobelinus reigned between AD5 and AD40 in the south-east of Britain. Four of the staters are posthumous issues, probably struck by Cunobelinus’s successors as ruler of the Catuvellauni tribe, the brothers Togodumnus and Caratacus, around AD 43.

The wide chronological range of the coins suggests they are consistent with being spoils from the early Roman conquest of Britain under the general Aulus Plautius (AD43-47). The coins may have been distributed to the army as a donativum, a bonus for a successful campaign. Of the Roman coins, 72 are gold aurei and 288 are silver denarii. They date from 200 BC to AD 47. The most recent coins in the hoard, struck in AD46-47, bear the portrait of the emperor Claudius. The area where the coins were discovered was a site from which the Romans had prepared for first crossing to Britain. It now appears it was also an area to which the conquering troops returned to the mainland.

Britain consisted of several separate kingdoms before Claudius ordered Aulus Plautius to invade with a force of four legions reinforced by a further 20,000 auxiliary soldiers. The Romans landed at Richborough, Kent and were met a large army of Britons under the Catuvellauni kings Caratacus and his brother Togodumnus, on the River Medway. Spearheaded by Legio II Augusta under Vespasian, the Romans crossed the river and defeated the Britons in the Battle of the Medway.