How to read Iron Age Coins | Curator’s Corner S10 Ep3

Let's be honest, you don't think that much about coins. However, if you wanted to write a history of Iron Age Britain, you'd have to. Iron Age Coins contain the earliest writing in Britain. The names of rulers and gods and all sorts of incredibly powerful beings are found on these coins, and aren't found anywhere else. But you can also use these coins to work out what Iron Age people were doing to pass the time - not just what they bought, but the art styles they invented, how many sons certain supposedly very fertile individuals supposedly had. Some were even designed as visual tricks to keep the holder amused. But coins, particularly Iron Age coins, aren't that easy to understand at first glance. So to help with that, Curator of Hoards Eleanor Ghey is going to show you how to decipher a whole host of Iron Age coins, help you understand why occasionally a horse is a wolf (or bore), and reveal why some of the weirdest and most wonderful coins in Iron Age Britain ended up looking... so wonderfully weird. 01:15 How coins came to western Europe 02:17 Iron Age Coin Designs and Development 03:55 Are human-headed horses normal? 08:49 How coins dies work? 11:06 The visual illusions of Iron Age Coins 13:37 The earliest writing on Iron Age Coins in Britain CONTENT WARNING: The coins get really weird when the get to Britain. You will never turn down loose change again. Watching this video may make you wish your horse had a different head. #curatorscorner #ironage #britain