ABSTRACT
In the Late Iron Age the core zone of south-eastern Britain was fringed by three coin-issuing tribes, the Durotriges, the Dobunni and the Corieltauvi, the numismatic history of each of which was quite distinct from that of its neighbours. The gross distribution of coins of these peripheral tribes (Figure 8.2) is interesting. Not only are tribal boundaries quite closely adhered to but remarkably few peripheral coins are found in the core territory. While this could be thought to imply little intercourse between the core and periphery it is far more likely to mean that peripheral coinage was unacceptable in the core territories and was melted down for re-minting. The reverse is less evident and in the territory of the Dobunni and Corieltauvi, Atrebatic and Trinovantian/Catuvellaunian coins are by no means rare. Such issues no doubt had value in intertribal exchanges. The western fringes of the peripheral tribes are far less easy to define since their boundaries are with non-coin-using neighbours. Even so the distribution maps suggest a fairly rapid fall off.
