Britannia on a copper coin of Hadrian
Made at Rome, AD 119-20
The ancient origin of the Britannia coin
design
Modern British coins often feature the figure of Britannia, the
personification of the island of Britain. She has been on British
coins continuously from 1672 to 2008, but is much older than
that.
Britannia is Roman and first appears on copper coins (then
known as asses) of the Emperor Hadrian (reigned AD
117-38), who visited Britain in AD 122 and ordered the building of
the famous wall. But she appears to have been created before
the emperor had set foot on the island. Although the combination of
the emperor’s titles indicates that it was made between AD 119 and
128, the style of coin suggests it was unlikely to be after AD
121.
The Romans visualised their imperial provinces
as figures equipped appropriately to their region. Britain was a
military province located on the frontier, so she is on guard with
spear and shield. She is well wrapped up in a cloak against the
northern cold. She also sits on a pile of rocks. Other mountainous
Roman provinces are depicted sitting on or holding rocks, so
perhaps Britannia sits on the Scottish Highlands that had been the
furthest reach of the Empire. (The rocks are unlikely to represent
Hadrian’s Wall as it had not yet been built.)
Why Britannia should appear in AD 119/20 is
curious. Fighting in Roman Britain is reported about this time but
she does not obviously celebrate any sort of victory.
Interestingly, this coin is almost always found in Britain or the
near part of the continent and forms one of several batches of
coppers apparently deliberately supplied as small change for the
area in the late first - second century AD. Most likely it was
simply known at the Roman mint where the shipment was destined
early enough to create an appropriate design. After this chance
event Britannia occasionally reappeared on Roman coins and
centuries later was adapted for modern British coins.
The modern adaptation appears more regal and
has naval overtones (she wears a fancy helmet and her spear is
replaced by a trident). This befits the centre of an eighteenth -
nineteenth century maritime empire but it is worth remembering her
origin was a foreign view of a subjugated land.
P.J. Casey, Roman Coinage in
Britain, (Princes Risborough, 1980)
R. Reece, The Coinage of Roman
Britain (Tempus, 2002)
D.R. Walker, ‘The Roman Coins’ in The
Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath Vol 2 The Finds from the
Sacred Spring ed B. Cunliffe (Oxford, 1988), 281-358