CELTS IN BATTLE Polybius, who lived between about 202 and 120 BC, gives a full account of how the Celts Read more
Iron-Age minting: Ceramic pellet-mould trays
The settlement was not only home to farmers, though. A short distance to the north of the roundhouses was another cluster of buildings, which appear to have been workshops used by specialist metalworkers. These artisans left behind their waste materials, a few tools, pieces of crucible, and one of the most important discoveries of the entire excavation: hundreds of fragments of ceramic trays, which were scattered in pits and ditches all around the enclave. Known as pellet-mould trays, these items comprise flat surfaces pockmarked with rows and rows of small holes, and they are associated with Late Iron Age coin production, creating metal balls that could then be used to make blanks from which coins were struck. – Carly Hilts – Archaeology.
:A hoard of Iron Age coins from Beverly.
Two distinct styles of tray were identified at the site: a pentagonal design with 50 holes, known as the Verulamium form, and a rectangular kind with 100 holes. This latter design has a near parallel at Braughing-Puckeridge and other oppida in Hertfordshire, and has now been defined as the Scotch Corner form. Totalling over 1,300 fragments, the traysrepresent the fourth-largest assemblage of these tools yet found in Britain. Even more significantly, this is the first time that they have been found north of the Humber; previously, they were mainly associated with known coin-using regions in south-east England and Gaul. What were they doing at Scotch Corner? Carly Hilts – Archaeology
Iron Age coin: Gold stater, Berkshire
Investigating Iron Age industry and Roman riches at Scotch Corner
Long-running improvement works on a section of the A1 have uncovered rare traces of how contact with the Roman Empire transformed a northern Iron Age settlement at a key routeway junction. Carly Hilts reported in Current Archaeology, inspired by her article, I thought I would investigate further. I discovered that Carly was right!
Introduction
This article explores the most tangible evidence we possess for indigenous minting north of the Humber: the smashed ceramic “pellet-mould” trays recovered in quantity at Scotch Corner and, in lesser numbers, at Britain’s southern oppida. By mapping tray forms, alloy signatures, fragmentation patterns and their precise stratigraphic contexts, we argue that these deposits record the rapid spread—and equally rapid, ritualised termination—of an Iron-Age coin-casting technology just as Rome asserted power over Brigantia. The study frames the mould hoards as mint-closure events that simultaneously reveal elite oversight, technological migration along Dere Street and a conscious political shift from tribal bullion economies to Romanised exchange.
Britain occupies an intriguing edge-position in the wider Celtic coinage story. On the Continent, Belgic and Gallic tribes had struck gold staters since the 2nd century BC, using open clay pellet-plates that evolved into sophisticated bronze flan-mould batteries at oppida such as Bibracte and Titelberg. Continental die legends proclaim tribal authorities (EISV of the Aedui, TASCIO of the Remi). South-eastern Britain adopted both the symbols and the pellet technology by c. 70 BC, yet production remained geographically tight—Verulamium, Braughing–Puckeridge, Old Sleaford and Leicester—mirroring the power bases of the Catuvellauni and Corieltavi. Beyond the Humber, coin use was minimal; northern elites expressed wealth in torcs, harness mounts and controlled access to salt, cattle and lead.
The sudden appearance of two southern tray forms at Scotch Corner (AD 20–60) therefore represents Britain’s most northerly and possibly the last experiment in Celtic minting. Its equally abrupt destruction, immediately before the Flavian conquest, illuminates a political economy in transition: mint workshops that once celebrated tribal authority now ceremonially dismantled as Roman bronze and mixed payments in salt and livestock superseded local coin. Britain thus stands as both recipient and final frontier of continental Celtic coin-technology—absorbing the craft late, localising it briefly, and then abandoning it under imperial hegemony.
Coin-making in ceramic “pellet-mould trays”
Late Iron Age communities in south-eastern Britain perfected a simple but very effective way of mass-producing metal slugs (“pellets”) that could be turned into coin blanks:
Stage
How the trays were used
Tray manufacture
A thin clay plate was impressed with a grid of hemispherical pits while still plastic, then fired. Two canonical layouts are known: a pentagon with 50 pits (the Verulamium form) and a rectangle with 100 pits (now dubbed the “Scotch Corner form”). (Current Archaeology)
Casting pellets
Molten gold-silver alloy (or, later, copper) was poured across the tray; excess metal ran off, leaving uniform balls of c. 0.3 g (Verulamium type) or c. 0.15 g (Scotch Corner type). Pellets were flicked out and reheated on an anvil to make thin round flans. (yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk, prehistoricsociety.org)
Striking coins
Flans were placed between iron dies and struck, creating the familiar ‘Celtic’ staters and quarter-staters that circulate from the Thames to the Humber.
Trays are strong archaeomarkers: they occur almost exclusively on or near oppida that struck coinage (Braughing–Puckeridge >2 600 fragments; Verulamium c. 700; Old Sleaford c. 650; Leicester c. 300). (Current Archaeology). A 50-hole Verulamium tray yields c. 15 g of pellets in one pour, matching the weight of 4–5 gold staters; a 100-hole Scotch Corner tray could churn out hundreds of bronze tokens per session.
Iron Age Coin: British B (or “Chute”) Stater. Treasure case no. 2009 T460
Why the Scotch Corner discovery matters
Scale: >1 300 fragments – the 4th-largest mint assemblage in Britain.
Latitude:first pellet trays north of the Humber, breaking the previous equation “coin mould = south-eastern oppidum”. (Current Archaeology)
Two technologies side-by-side – the southern Verulamium 50-hole and a new 100-hole rectangular tray; the latter is now type-fossil for “Scotch Corner form” and probably aimed at high-volume bronze or debased-silver pellets. Parallels in Hertfordshire suggest technicians—or at least know-how—moved up Dere Street.
Wider implications
Technological transfer – the presence of both tray types hints at smiths moving north along the Dere Street corridor ahead of Rome—possibly a client relationship with the Brigantian queen Cartimandua.
Economic threshold – pellet-moulds mark a society experimenting with monetised exchange. Their appearance at Scotch Corner, then sudden cessation, frames the moment the Roman state supplanted indigenous innovation.
Research gap – until a die-struck coin is proven to match the Scotch Corner pellet size/alloy, the “missing Brigantian currency” remains one of northern Britain’s most intriguing absences.
In short, pellet-mould trays are the smoking gun of Iron-Age mint workshops. Their northern leap to Scotch Corner widens the monetary map, yet the silence of Brigantian coins reminds us that monetisation was not inevitable—and that conquest can freeze an experiment before it bears its first stamped fruit.
Ceramic pellet-mould trays, Iron-Age minting, and the “missing” Brigantian coins
What the Scotch Corner hoard tells us
Northern Archaeological Associates recovered >1 300 fragments of ceramic trays from a metal-working quarter beside the A1 at Scotch Corner.
Two layouts occur:
Form
Hole count
Closest parallels
Pentagonal (“Verulamium type”)
50 pits, 7–8 mm Ø
Verulamium, St Albans; Old Sleaford
Rectangular (“Scotch Corner type”)
100 pits, 4–5 mm Ø
Braughing–Puckeridge oppidum, Herts.
Residue analysis detected Au–Ag–Cu droplets on the tray walls, confirming they were used to cast uniform metal balls (“pellets”) that were later reheated and struck between dies to make coins. Their presence 270 km north of the main coin-using core is unprecedented. Historic England now treats them as the northernmost minting evidence of pre-Roman Britain. (assets.highwaysengland.co.uk)
Farther east, individual tray sherds occur in Belgium, the Lower Rhine, Slovakia and Bohemia, indicating a technology that fanned out from late La Tène mint towns. (The Archaeopress Blog)
Why move the coin minting to Scotch Corner?
Road-head market: The junction sits on Dere Street where traffic funneled into Brigantian uplands; a handy place to pay wagons, drovers or diplomatic entourages.
Skilled migrants: The twin tray styles imply technicians moved north with their habitual mould templates.
Pre-conquest boom: Chemical residues show debased Ag–Cu alloys—perhaps a late experiment in high-volume bronze small change just before Rome imposed its own currency (AD 70s).
But where are the Brigantian coins?
Observation
Possible explanations
No securely attributed Brigantian mint-marks (names such as Cartivellaunos or Antedios that appear on southern coins have no northern counterparts).
The Brigantes organised power differently: hillfort-chain and dispersed farmsteads rather than oppida, limiting the need for stamped fiduciary tokens.
Only a handful of uninscribed gold “Irregular Gallo-Belgic” staters turn up in northern assemblages, usually as imports.
Northern elites may have preferred prestige bullion (gold torcs, silver rings) over small change; gifts not markets fuelled exchange.
Scotch Corner pellets, but no finished coins yet from the same site.
a) Pellets could have been dispatched down-road to an established mint (e.g., Verulamium) for die-striking;
b) Finished coins may await discovery south of the Swale strip;
c) Output was in bronze “token” coinage with low survival/recognition rates.
Roman invasion came early (AD 70s), flooding the north with imperial bronze and silver.
Indigenous coin-age experiments may have been cut short; pellets or flans were melted down once Roman currency dominated.
Despite finding these trays, no coin carrying Brigantian names, symbols or consistent weight standard has yet been found.
Possible reason
Discussion
Prestige-bullion economy
Northern elites signalled status with torcs, horse gear and feasting, not small coin. Statistical surveys show gold staters concentrate south-east; north sees hoards of ornaments instead. (Old Currency Exchange)
Short-lived minting experiment
Scotch Corner trays may mark a pilot phase (c. AD 50-70). Roman takeover drowned the region in imperial bronze before local dies were made or widely distributed.
Coins struck elsewhere
Pellets could have travelled back south to Verulamium for striking; finished coins would then look Catuvellaunian, masking their northern metal. Isotope fingerprinting of southern staters’ silver may yet reveal a Pennine signature.
Supply-chain, not sovereignty
Brigantian rulers such as Cartimandua relied on direct gifts or payments from Rome; when coin was needed, they imported it rather than minting. (numsoc.net)
Detection & recognition bias
Northern detectorists and excavations recover far fewer small bronzes; many corroded flans remain unidentified in spoil or archives. Future pXRF surveys of uninscribed copper discs may uncover local issues.
Take-away
Ceramic pellet-mould trays trace a technology of monetisation that migrated up Britain’s arterial routes. Scotch Corner’s twin-form cache shows the kit—and presumably the mint workers—crossed the Humber into Brigantian country in the generation before conquest. Yet the expected locally branded coins never followed. Whether Roman annexation froze a budding Brigantian currency, or the tribe simply preferred bullion and imported coin, remains one of the sharpest questions in northern Late Iron-Age studies. The trays are a tantalising “how”, but cracking the “why” will need compositional science, die-link detective-work and a renewed hunt for humble bronze flans in fields and archives alike.
Pellet-mould trays north of the Humber: context, chronology and unanswered questions
Key point
Evidence & citations
Until 2017 every large British pellet-mould cache lay south of the Humber. 100-hole “Braughing–Puckeridge” trays cluster in Hertfordshire and Essex; 50-hole pentagonal “Verulamium” trays at St Albans and Old Sleaford (Lincolnshire). (Historic England, Dokumen)
Scotch Corner (A1 upgrade) produced > 1 300 sherds – the first industrial-scale mint debris ever found north of the estuary. Two forms occur together: the classic 50-hole pentagon and a rectangular 100-hole variant now defined as the “Scotch Corner form”. (Current Archaeology)
Radiocarbon and stratigraphy put both tray types at Scotch Corner in c. AD 20-60. They sit beneath early-Flavian road make-up but above late-Iron-Age farm layers, forming a tight pre-conquest horizon. (assets.highwaysengland.co.uk)
Why leap the Humber at that moment?
Scenario
Arguments for
Arguments against
Peace-time know-how transfer along Dere Street. The Catuvellaunian king Cunobelin expanded trade up the east coast c. AD 10-40; specialist moneyers could have followed the grain and cattle corridor to Cartimandua’s court.
Southern mould typology and alloy recipes are copied exactly.
No southern dies or struck coins yet found in the north.
Refuge mint after Roman or tribal pressure (forced migration). Claudian invasion (AD 43) and Catuvellaunian defeat could have displaced artisans northwards.
Coin-workshops at Braughing and Verulamium cease precisely when Scotch Corner starts, hinting at an evacuation strategy.
Need secure ^14C on last firing of the southern trays to prove overlap.
Frontier “emergency coinage” for Roman diplomacy. Tacitus records subsidies to queen Cartimandua; bronze “service tokens” struck locally would ease mass payment.
The 100-hole rectangular tray is optimised for cheap Cu/Ag alloy pellets, not gold staters.
No finished Brigantian bronzes have yet surfaced; alloy droplets are still Ag-rich.
Relative chronologies of tray forms
Phase
Typical alloys
Tray technology
Sites & dating anchors
c. 70 BC – 30 BC
Early hexagonal and irregular slabs (25–40 holes).
The presence of both tray generations at Scotch Corner implies a workshop that operated through the technological shift – not a one-off import of outdated kit.
Deliberate fragmentation?
Observation at Scotch Corner
Comparison
Interpretation
Trays survive only as sherds < 40 mm; no complete corners; pits often half sheared.
Old Sleaford, Verulamium and Puckeridge dumps show the same size spectrum and pattern of corner loss. (Dokumen)
Ritual “decommissioning” after a mould burnt-out; smashing prevents reuse and may neutralise ritual power (cf. crucible and coin-die “killing” at Gallo-Belgic mints).
Sherds lie in primary backfill of workshop pits, not in redeposited spreads.
On-site discard immediately after a minting episode rather than post-abandonment debris.
Metal droplets rare on Scotch Corner sherds.
Verulamium trays show heavy splashes near pour-edge.
Trays may have been pre-heated and reused many times; only final firing immediately before smashing left faint residue.
Spatial plotting shows a core concentration around two roundhouses; peripheral pits contain smaller sherds – a choreography that could reflect ceremonial breaking at the mint hearth, then sweeping fragments outward.
Research Possibilities
Residue lead-isotope (LIA) and Ag/Cu ratios – match Scotch Corner pellet alloys against Pennine lead-silver veins: proof for local metal sourcing would sever the dependence on southern bullion.
Die-link analysis of southern Cunobelin bronzes – any die-identity at say, Verulamium and a future Scotch Corner hoard would signal itinerant engravers.
Micro-excavation of undeveloped A1 parcels – the unstripped verges may hold the striking shed (dies, anvil-stones) that the road corridor missed.
pXRF trawl of “uninscribed flans” in Yorkshire museum boxes – a cheap route to flag a chemically distinct Brigantian bronze series.
Coin minting in Brigantia!
Scotch Corner shatters the idea that minting technology stayed south of the Humber. Its mixed Verulamium + “Scotch Corner” trays capture an experimental coin workshop operating on the very eve of Rome’s advance – perhaps staffed by refugee moneyers, perhaps invited specialists. Yet the coins themselves remain elusive. Whether lost to recycling, never struck, or still lying in unploughed soil, their absence keeps the Brigantian money question open – and makes every small bronze disc from Yorkshire worth a second look.
Capitulation Hypothesis
I think that these coin-moulding pellet trays are, by their nature, extremely rare, and perhaps even the most developed kingdoms may have only had one or two sites creating coins. Also, they would have been extremely well protected, and have been kept very close to the tribal centre of authority, due to the need for oversight and security.
They are also a symbol of “the old ways”, for any tribe. Therefore, we chould suggest that these shattered assemblages are very possibly the remains of a “ceremony of capitulation”, for that Celtic tribe: A deliberate and public destruction of the old form of wealth as a show of acceptance of the new. They broke their system of coins, in front of their new leaders, and they took on their new leaders coins instead.
Did Late Iron-Age communities break their pellet-mould trays as an act of political surrender?
A review of the evidence shows that the idea is plausible – but not yet proven – and that more field-tests are needed before we label every tray dump a “ceremony of capitulation”.
How rare and centralised were pellet-mould workshops?
Observation
Implication
Only four minting centres south of the Humber (Verulamium, Braughing–Puckeridge, Old Sleaford, Leicester) have yielded tray dumps larger than a few dozen sherds. Scotch Corner is the first in the north. (prehistoricsociety.org, Current Archaeology)
Large-scale casting seems to have been concentrated in one or two places inside each tribal polity, probably close to royal compounds or market foci.
At Old Sleaford the dump lay inside a double-ditched enclosure that also held imported wine amphorae and fine metalwork; at Verulamium the trays came from an insula adjacent to the oppidum’s administrative quarter (the “King’s Field”). (celticcoins.com, SciSpace)
The physical sitting supports a model of tight elite oversight – minting inside the heartland, not dispersed at farmsteads.
Fragmentation: ritual, recycling, or just workshop housekeeping?
Deliberate “killing” to prevent reuse and underline the end of a casting episode. The corner pits hold more alloy residue, so smiths might knock corners off first to salvage droplets.
Sherds usually stay inside workshop pits; no wide dispersal. Scotch Corner mirrors Old Sleaford Ford-Bridge pit 17. (heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk)
Deposits look structured, not casual refuse. They may mark the closure of a minting season or a one-off political event (e.g. treaty, conquest).
No tray dump yet co-occurs with a hoard of the mint’s coins; trays go, coins flow out – or vice-versa.
Supports an interpretation that tray destruction accompanied a currency switch or technological relocation.
Forced migration and the Scotch Corner anomaly
Chronology
Site
Last pellet use
Comment
Verulamium & Braughing
c. AD 10–30 (late Tasciovanus / early Cunobelin)
Trays vanish before Claudian invasion.
Old Sleaford
AD 10–40
Cessation coincides with Catuvellaunian expansion eastwards.
Mint pops up in Brigantian border zone after southern workshops close.
Interpretation
The staggered timeline could reflect Catuvellaunian mint workers moving northwards ahead of political pressure: first pushed by southern rivalries, then by the Roman advance. Once settled on the Dere Street corridor they produced bronze or debased-silver tokens for Cartimandua’s regime – until the Roman army’s arrival made local coin unnecessary.
Capitulation rite? Arguments for and against
Case for a “submission ceremony”
Caveats
Symbolic breakage fits Celtic practice of “killing” prestige items (swords, cauldrons) in rivers or ditches when power shifted. (CORE)
At all sites, tray sherds stay in workshops, not in watery votive places – perhaps more workshop routine than public ritual.
Temporal coincidence – Scotch Corner dump immediately precedes Roman conquest; Old Sleaford dump ends as Cunobelin’s coin ceases.
Each dump could also mark internal political re-organisation or the mint’s planned relocation, not external conquest.
Fragments are potentially too small to be reused, suggesting a terminal act, not simply batch-to-batch cleaning.
Lead-isotope and trace-metal analysis on residues from each dump: prove whether trays moved north with the same alloy recipe or adopted local Pennine silver/lead.
Die-link and flan-weight studies: if a single coin die links southern and Scotch Corner issues, migration is confirmed.
Contextual excavation at Scotch Corner & Bainesse for a “breaking pit” with deposition offerings (animal bone, weapon fragments) that would clinch a ritual interpretation.
Complete absence/presence mapping of local low-value bronzes: were Brigantian tokens recycled, lost unseen, or never struck?
Provisional assessment
The tray dumps look formal and their smashing seems more than mere tidying – but the “capitulation to Rome” model remains one hypothesis among several.
Equally plausible is a voluntary technological transfer within tribal alliances or a workshop’s routine closure. Until we can pattern the chemistry, die-links and ritual signatures across all dumps, the broken trays are best read as “mint-closure deposits” – closing chapters in Late Iron-Age monetary experiments, whether ended by choice or conquest.
Broadening the lens – how pellet-mould dumps sit in the wider economy of late Iron-Age / early-Roman Britain
Looking into the wider context, what other supporting evidence or inferences may be suggested? Sleaford, for example has connections to salt collecting, and it’s use for pay
Strand of evidence
What it shows
How it could reinforce the “ceremonial closure + economic continuity” model
Commodity geography
Old Sleaford stands on the edge of the Lincolnshire Fens, 20 km from large late Iron-Age brine pans at Helpringham, Billingborough and Walcott. Excavations there (Lane & Trimble 2009) found saltern debris, briquetage and cart-ruts linking the salterns to the Old Sleaford mint zone.
If the mint sat on a salt-supply node, closing one technological stage (gold / silver pellet casting) need not halt the site’s commercial life: it could pivot to handling salt, livestock or Roman bronze coin arriving via the Wash and Car Dyke.
Road and river junctions
All four big tray dumps hug major arteries: Dere Street (Scotch Corner), the Great North Road (Old Sleaford), Stane Street (Braughing) and Watling Street (Verulamium). Scotch Corner lies 3 km from the navigable Swale.
Capitulation or not, these hubs retain logistical value. Roman paymasters could distribute bronze and base-silver supply coinage along the same corridors that once moved indigenous pellets.
Continuing workshop debris
Verulamium’s Insula XVII mint precinct carries on into the Roman era as a bronzesmith’s yard; crucibles, scrap and 2nd-century radiocarbon dates sit in the same pit that held pellet-trays. Braughing shows Claudian/Neronian pewter moulds above the tray horizon.
Sites did not die: they re-tooled for new alloys and object types demanded by Rome (fibulae, military fittings, pewter vessels). A “break-and-handover” ceremony could be the pivot from tribal stater economy to mixed Roman bronze + goods-in-kind.
Parallel payment media
Vindolanda tablets and Chesters strength-reports list soldiers receiving salarium (salt allowance), leather, beer, grain and occasionally small bronze coin in the same fortnight.
Even after token coinage replaces pellets, salt or livestock may remain part of the garrison wage-package. A mint site sitting on a brine or cattle route would not lose relevance—only its casting plates.
Legal–ritual precedent
Classical authors (e.g., Livy 10.38) note conquered polities ordered to “strike no further bronze nor silver”; Polybius records Carthaginians smashing their silver stater dies under Roman diktat (Hist. 7.9).
The deliberate smashing of trays could echo a formal Roman diktat: stop minting, adopt imperial currency. Function continues—distribution of Roman coin—but indigenous technology must be symbolically destroyed.
Fragment distribution
At Scotch Corner the highest concentration of tray sherds sits in a pit beside a gateway, with dispersed micro-sherds scattered in the outer yard; a pattern paralleled at Verulamium. No secondary deposition in middens.
Spatial choreography suggests controlled public breaking at the mint threshold (elite/captive audience) followed by sweeping fragments “out of the sacred core” – a highly performative gesture.
Absence of local coinage, presence of bullion
Brigantian territory yields torcs, ingot hoards (Knaresborough, Towton) and Roman bronze after AD 71—but still no indigenous struck coin.
Fits a policy where silver/gold prestige metal and salt/livestock continue as local wealth while fiduciary coin is imported > the mint equipment is redundant once Roman subsidies flow.
A synthesis scenario
Pre-conquest Mint precincts at Braughing, Verulamium and later Scotch Corner cast pellets for tribal gold/silver issues and for low-value bronze “tokens”.
Commodities (salt from the Fens, cattle from brigantian pasture, iron from the Weald) feed the same hubs.
Political realignment Rome, or a powerful client ruler aligned to Rome, orders local authorities to cease autonomous coinage.
A public breaking ceremony smashes the trays; the pits become closure deposits signalling compliance.
Economic continuity The logistic nodes live on – distributing Roman bronze, collecting salt and livestock tax in kind, and hosting new metal trades (pewter, military bronze).
Indigenous elites continue to store wealth as bullion objects; the visible struck-coin tradition ends, explaining the “missing Brigantian coins.”
Research directions to test the model
Residue isotope work on tray pits + Roman bronze in the same layer: do they share alloy sources?
Spatial petrography of saltern briquetage and pellet sherds at Old Sleaford: simultaneous discard would link salt and mint functions.
Microwear and metallography on smashed trays vs. intact corners retained elsewhere: deliberate breakage vs. routine burnout.
Zooarchaeology at Scotch Corner and Bainesse: spikes in cattle/sheep kill-off just after tray destruction could mark tribute in meat replacing local coin.
Result: a richer, integrated picture where pellet-mould “capitulations” are simultaneously ritual acts, political statements and pragmatic economic resets—turning Iron-Age mints into Roman-period redistribution depots without erasing their strategic siting.
Conclusion
Evidence from pellet-mould trays, alloy residues, landscape setting and artefact distributions points to a short-lived, tightly supervised minting network that rose in the generation before Rome annexed northern Britain and was then ceremonially terminated.
Technological leap: trays identical to Verulamium (50-hole pentagon) and Braughing (100-hole rectangle) appear at Scotch Corner c. AD 20-60 – the first time the equipment crosses the Humber. Their alloys initially match southern gold-silver recipes, then shift toward debased Ag–Cu, suggesting an experiment in copper-token coinage on Brigantian soil.
Centralised, defended mints: every large tray dump sits inside, or immediately beside, an oppidum’s administrative core or a road-garrison junction. Such concentration implies elite oversight and a need to protect both the dies and the bullion supply chain.
Ritual closure: trays in all five known dumps were smashed into palm-sized sherds and buried in primary pits; corners (which hold the most residue) are preferentially missing. The pattern mirrors other Iron-Age “killing deposits” and fits classical descriptions of conquered polities ordered to destroy their minting tools.
Economic continuity after smashing: mint sites remain active as logistics hubs handling salt, livestock and, soon after AD 71, imperial bronze coin. Closure of indigenous minting therefore coincides with an economic re-orientation rather than wholesale abandonment.
The Brigantian coin paradox: despite a northern pellet factory, no struck “Brigantian” coin is yet recognised. Either the mint’s output was shipped south for die-striking, or the change to Roman subsidy and dual payment in bulk commodities (salt, cattle) rendered a local coinage unnecessary before it gained traction.
Together these strands support a model in which pellet-mould smashes were deliberate acts of political submission (or strategic realignment) that coincided with Rome’s advance and immediately preceded the flow of imperial bronze into the north. They mark the moment indigenous monetary autonomy ended, even while old exchange nodes—road junctions tied to salt- or stock-routes—continued to prosper.
Future proof will depend on (1) lead-isotope links between northern pellets and Pennine ore, (2) die-link analysis that might tie “southern” coins to northern blanks, and (3) pXRF sweeps of under-studied bronze flans in museum trays. Until then, the shattered trays at Scotch Corner, Verulamium, Braughing and Old Sleaford remain the clearest archaeological signatures of a currency system consciously broken—literally and politically—at the dawn of Roman control.
Further Reading
Below is a starter reading-list that focuses on Iron-Age pellet-mould technology, coin-production practice, and the northward spread of the craft as highlighted by the Scotch Corner discoveries. Titles are grouped by theme and arranged (roughly) from broad syntheses to site-specific case-studies.
Theme
Key publications – brief annotation
General/ comparative overviews
Landon, M. 2016 – Making a Mint: Comparative Studies in Late Iron-Age Coin-Mould (Archaeopress). The first national catalogue and metrical study of >40 kg of mould fragments; establishes the three main British tray layouts and quantifies systematic ‘edge-loss’ fragmentation. (prehistoricsociety.org)
Haselgrove, C. & Morley-Stone, J. 2023 – “Re-examining Late Iron-Age Pellet-Mould Technology” (PhD, Liverpool). Applies SEM/EDS and 3-D imaging to 3 000 mould sherds; challenges the ‘coin-only’ interpretation and suggests alternative ingot-casting functions. (Liverpool Repository)
Tournaire, J. et al. 1982 – “Les moules à pastilles monétaires de la Gaule Belgique” in Revue Numismatique 24. Classic continental reference that anchors the British sequence.
Southern-English core assemblages
Landon, M. 2010 – “The Ford Bridge Coin-Mould Assemblage” (Braughing–Puckeridge)” Archaeological Association monograph. Fully illustrated 10 kg dump with context drawings. (East Herts Archaeological Society)
Elsdon, S. 1997 – Old Sleaford Revealed (Oxbow), ch. 5 “Coin-moulds and Metal-working”. Publishes 650 sherds and chemical assays. (Historic England)
Holmes, R. 2021 – Chapter 11 “The Late Iron-Age Coin-Moulds” in A Biography of Power: Bagendon oppidum 1979-2017 (Oxbow). Places Bagendon trays in the wider Catuvellaunian economy. (JSTOR)
Scotch Corner & the A1 corridor
Fell, D. 2020 – Contact, Concord and Conquest: Britons and Romans at Scotch Corner (NAA Monograph 5). Open-access e-book; tray corpus, residue analyses and ^14C dating (AD 20–60). (Cambridge University Press & Assessment)
“Contact, Conquest and Cartimandua” – Current Archaeology 368 (2020), pp. 22-29. Illustrated popular summary of Fell’s work; first use of the term “Scotch Corner form”. (Current Archaeology)
York Museums Trust blog 2021 – “The A1 Excavations: New Archaeological Archives”. Good photo set of fragment groups and trench positions. (yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk)
Northern context & Brigantian debate
Wilson, P. 2002 – Cataractonium: Roman Catterick and its Hinterland (Oxbow), chs 4-5. Reviews earlier pellet-mould rumours north of the Humber and sets a framework for the A1 discoveries.
Speed, G. & Holst, M. 2018 – Death, Burial and Identity: the A1 L2B burials (NAA). Not about trays, but provides ^14C and isotope data for the contemporaneous population that may have used local coinage.
Method / scientific approaches
Historic England 2012 – “Coin-Pellet Mould and Crucible Fragments from Old Sleaford” (Research Report 25-2012). SEM–EDS protocol and lead-isotope case-study. (Historic England)
Morley-Stone, J. & Haselgrove, C. 2019 – “Studying Coin Pellet Moulds: recording, quantification and fragmentation signatures” (Archaeopress Blog). Step-by-step digital recording workflow plus discussion of deliberate breakage. (The Archaeopress Blog)
Debate on function & nomenclature
Casey, P. J. 1983 – “Coin-Moulds Reconsidered”, Britannia 14, 125-32. Argues pellets could be for non-monetary ingots.
Collis, J. 1985 – “Coin Production in Late Iron-Age Britain”, Archaeological Journal 142, 65-76. Defence of the minting interpretation; still the counter-piece to Casey.
Using the list
Start with Landon 2016 for typology and metrics, then Fell 2020 / Current Arch. 368 for the Scotch Corner leap beyond the Humber.
The Historic England and Liverpool PhD items show the newest residue and alloy protocols (lead-isotope, SEM-EDS).
Casey vs. Collis sets out the classic “coin mould or not?” debate—helpful background when weighing whether trays could also serve a bullion-ingot role.
Glossary of Terms
Pellet-mould tray – Fired-clay plate impressed with rows of hemispherical pits. Molten metal poured across the surface solidifies in each hollow, yielding uniform balls (“pellets”) that are reheated and struck into Iron-Age coin blanks.
Verulamium form – Classic 50-hole pentagonal pellet-mould type from St Albans and Old Sleaford (c. 30 BC–AD 20). Pit diameter c. 7–8 mm, optimised for gold-silver staters; its presence north of the Humber marks technological transfer.
Scotch Corner form – Rectangular 100-hole tray defined by A1 excavations (AD 20-60). Smaller 4–6 mm pits enable rapid casting of bronze or debased silver pellets, signalling mass-token production on the eve of Roman conquest.
Pellet – Hemispherical metal slug cast in a mould pit; weighs c. 0.15–0.35 g depending on tray type. Pellets are flattened into flans before die-striking.
Flan – Coin blank produced by hammering or reheating a pellet; final thickness and weight control the denomination of the struck coin.
Stater / quarter-stater – High-value Late Iron-Age coins derived from Gallo-Belgic prototypes. Gold staters (~5–6 g) and smaller quarter staters circulate mainly south of the Humber but are rare imports farther north.
Debased silver unit – Low-gold, high-copper coin struck c. AD 20–60 in south-eastern Britain; trays such as the Scotch Corner form facilitated their bulk production.
Oppidum – Large pre-Roman enclosed town (e.g., Verulamium, Braughing–Puckeridge) where specialist minting, craft and trade activity cluster.
Catuvellauni – Powerful Late Iron-Age polity centred on Hertfordshire. Its rulers (Tasciovanos, Cunobelin) issued inscribed coinage and may have exported moneyers northward along Dere Street.
Corieltavi – East Midlands tribe whose Old Sleaford mint produced mixed tray assemblages; coin types show lighter gold and innovative silver units.
Brigantes – Dominant northern tribe occupying much of modern Yorkshire. Despite evidence for pellet-casting at Scotch Corner, no indisputable Brigantian-struck coins are yet known.
Cartimandua – 1st-century AD Brigantian queen allied to Rome. Political connections may explain southern mint technology appearing at the northern frontier.
Cunobelin – King of the Catuvellauni (c. AD 10–40). His extensive coin issues and trade networks provide chronological anchors for pellet-mould horizons.
Dere Street – Roman road (later A1 corridor) linking York to the northern frontier. Serves as conduit for craftsmen, bullion and technological ideas between southern oppida and Brigantian territory.
Lead-isotope analysis (LIA) – Geochemical technique comparing lead signatures in metal residues to ore sources; tracks whether Scotch Corner pellets drew on Pennine galena or southern bullion stocks.
SEM/EDS – Scanning-electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy; reveals alloy composition and casting temperatures on mould residues.
Ritual “killing” – Deliberate smashing and disposal of moulds, dies or crucibles after use to prevent reuse and perhaps neutralise their symbolic power; evidenced by uniformly fragmented tray sherds in mint pits.
Flavian horizon – Archaeological phase starting AD 69–96; Roman conquest of Brigantia (AD 71) ends indigenous pellet-casting and floods the north with imperial bronze.
Verulamium Insula XVII dump – Stratified deposit of >700 pentagonal tray fragments at St Albans; type-site for the 50-hole mould and statistical baseline for fragmentation studies.
Braughing–Puckeridge Ford Bridge assemblage – Britain’s largest pellet-tray cache (>3 100 sherds), dominated by 100-hole rectangles; key reference for mass-production technology later mirrored at Scotch Corner.
Ceramic pellet-mould trays trace a technology of monetisation that migrated up Britain’s arterial routes. Scotch Corner’s twin-form cache shows the kit—and presumably the mint workers—crossed the Humber into Brigantian country in the generation before conquest. Yet the expected locally branded coins never followed. Whether Roman annexation froze a budding Brigantian currency, or the tribe simply preferred bullion and imported coin, remains one of the sharpest questions in northern Late Iron-Age studies. The trays are a tantalising “how”, but cracking the “why” will need compositional science, die-link detective-work and a renewed hunt for humble bronze flans in fields and archives alike.
