Bodvoc Bold. 25-5 BC. Gold stater. 19mm. 5.49g. BODVOC on plain field./ Triple-tailed horse right, crescent and two ringed-pellets above forming sad hidden face, tiny x below head, pellet triad behind, tiny x and wheel below. ABC 2039, VA 1052, BMC 3135-42, S 388. CCI 10.2790 (this coin). EF/Near EF, big flan of rich rose gold, boldly branded. One of the best inscriptions we’ve seen. Ex John Follows collection, ‘From an old collection at Faringdon, Oxon.’ Images: © Chris Rudd Ltd, www.celticcoins.com

Dr Philip de Jersey: “There seems to be a general consensus now that Bodvoc was the first ruler to add his name to the western coinage, boldly replacing the (?)ash tree which had previously decorated the stater coinage. The use of a personal name in this style bears some similarity to the ‘branding’ adopted by Tincomarus and Tasciovanos on their later gold coinages, and perhaps gives us a very approximate date for Bodvoc, say c.25 BC-5 BC”. The king’s full name may have been Bodvocoveros ‘Giant Battle-Crow’.



S.388 Bodvoc - Dobunni Gold Stater: BO(DVOC), either worn or not struck up, S.388, 8 spoked wheel, 5.04g., found mid 2017 by the river Wye near Monmouth. Images courtesy of Phil Hutchings.