.jpg){kind=link}
Crescent Corn Ears unit (ancient plated copy)
Coin 22 · Iceni (Eastern region)
An incomplete ancient plated copy of an uninscribed East Anglian (Iceni) silver unit: opposed crescents on one face and a horse below a six-spoked wheel on the other.
- Issuer or group
- Iceni (Eastern region)
- Metal
- Plated copy of a silver unit
- Date (record)
- 20 BC–AD 40
- Catalogue refs (record)
- ABC 1591; BMC 3767–3774
- Specimen
- PAS 806976
- Specimen size
- Not in the record. The model is about 12.9 mm across, estimated from the scale in the photograph.
Obverse. Opposed crescents and pellet-in-ring motifs at the centre of four corn ears, a group of three pellets in each quarter (record).
Reverse. Horse left with pellets on the shoulder, a six-spoked wheel and a plain arc above, a pellet in a ring below (record).
This specimen is an ancient plated copy of a silver unit, not a solid-silver coin.
The coin is incomplete. The as-minted view restores the missing outline as our inference; the found view keeps the losses.
In the source photograph the reverse (horse) face is on the left.
Features
| # | Feature | Face | As-minted evidence | On the found coin | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crescent (left) | Obverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | A raised crescent at the left, curving outwards. |
| 2 | Crescent (right) | Obverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | A second crescent, facing the opposite way, right of centre. |
| 3 | Pellet in a ring (upper) | Obverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | A raised dot inside a ring, above the crescents. |
| 4 | Ring (lower) | Obverse | Observed in the photo | Partly visible on this find | Part of a ring below the crescents. |
| 5 | Six-spoked wheel | Reverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | A wheel with spokes, at the top of the face. |
| 6 | Horse | Reverse | Observed in the photo | Partly visible on this find | Rounded forms of the horse's body across the middle of the face. |
| 7 | Pellet in a ring | Reverse | Observed in the photo | Survives on this find | A raised dot inside a ring, near the bottom edge. |
In the record but not modelled
- Four corn ears: Named in the record round the crescents; not identified in the photo.
- Groups of three pellets in each quarter: Named in the record; not identified with confidence in the photo.
- Plain arc above the horse: Named in the record; not identified with confidence in the photo.
The found specimen
- Wear
- Moderate: the rings and crescents are clear, the horse is not.
- Corrosion
- Heavy green corrosion, mainly on the crescent face.
- Strike
- The designs are off-centre; parts run off the flan.
- Completeness
- Incomplete: the outline is broken and ragged on several sides.
These are descriptions, not grades. Thickness in the model: inferred (no weight or thickness recorded): set to 8.5% of the diameter.
Source and licence
Based on a photograph by Andrew Brown / The British Museum, via the Portable Antiquities Scheme and Wikimedia Commons (file page as retrieved, revision 1119896549), licensed CC BY 2.0. Changes: the two faces were cut out of the photograph, rotated and rescaled to a common frame, and used to make an interpretive 3D reconstruction. Depth, the edge and unseen surfaces are inferred, not measured. The as-minted version is further cleaned, restored and recoloured by us.
SHA-256 of the archived original: 82fcb7d297afc6a4c76eed06172a07786307541988b34f8cb8cd345f60f8e1c1. Retrieved 2026-10-16.