Pre-Roman British coin discovered in Hampshire, England.

A pre-Roman coin discovered by metal-detectorist Lewis Fudge in the Test Valley, Hampshire, England, in March 2023 was sold by auction house Spink on 28 September, for £20 400. The coin is made of gold and thought to date from between 50 BC and 30 BC, and bears the name of a little-known ruler called 'Esunertos'. The coin features a seven spoked wheel and three rows of interlocked, outward-facing crescents as well as the name Esunertos on one side, while on the other is what appears to be a stylised horse, with a mandible-like jaw and three tails, as well as another wheel.

A pre-Roman British coin sold by auction house Spink on 28 September 2023. Spink.

Little is known about Esunertos (or Iisuniirtos), other than that he is thought to have ruled an area west of the Thames in the second half of the first century BC. Three previous coins with the inscription have been found at Danebury Hill Fort, also in Hampshire, about 19 km to the northwest of Winchester, which may have served as a seat to this ruler. The name 'Esunertos' appears to mean 'mighty as Esos' or 'strength of Esos', and is known to have been used in Roman Britain and Gaul. The Celtic god Esos is thought to have been worshipped across what is now southern Britain, northern France, and western Germany. There are two known images of Esos, in both of which he is cutting branches from a tree with an axe in wetland scenes, suggesting that he was associated with this environment. The Roman poet Lucan claimed that Human sacrifices to Esos were tied to trees and flogged to death, but this may have been propaganda. 

An image of the Celtic god Esos, from the 'Pilar of the Boatmen', a monumental Roman column erected in Lutetia (modern Paris) in the first century AD, and now in the collection of the Musée National du Moyen Age. Wikimedia Commons. 

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