File:Roman Coin 20.jpg

English: A bronze coin of Claudius, presumably an as, dupondius, or sestertius, from the figures illustrating the margins of Moll's map of Nottinghamshire, sold separately and as Map 29 in his Set of Fifty New and Correct Maps of England and Wales... The image is a reengraving of Figure 2 from Tabula I Nummi Romani on Page 98 of William Camden's Britannia, Vol. I, itself a copy of the engraving in John Speed's 1611 Historie of Great Britaine, Book 6, Chapter VI, p. 58.

Obverse: TI·CLAVDIVS·CAES·AVG·GER·P·M TR P XII·IMP XIIX [intending the TI·CLAVD·CAES·AVG·GER·P·M·TR·P·XII·IMP·XIIX· in Camden and Speed, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Pontifex Maximus Tribunicia Potestas XII Imperator XIIX, Emperor and High Priest Tiberius Claudius Caesar of German Fame in the 12th Year of His Tribunician Power and upon His 18th Acclamation as General]

Reverse: COL CAMALODON AVG [Colonia Camalodonensis Augusta, Colchester Imperial Colony]

The reverse depicts the founding of the Roman colony at Colchester, established at Claudius's direction after Legion XX moved from Colchester to Gloucestershire in AD 49. This initial colony was subsequently massacred during the Boudican revolt in AD 60 or 61.

Speed identifies the coin as copper and notes "(10) With very great danger he passed the Seas, and ioining strength with his Lieutenant and Vespasian, they all together crossed the Riuer Thamisis, where presently they were encountred by the Britaines, who a while maintained the battaile very desperately, but in the end gaue place & fled, whom the Romanes pursued euen to their strong Camulodunum, then the seate of Adminius, Cunobelins sonne, as may aptly be coniectured by the Medul of Britannicus the Emperours darling, figured in the front of this Chapter; which City they surprised and fortified with their owne Garrisons, and the Emperour afterwards in the eleuenth of his raigne (as appeareth by the other coine) turned to a Colony of Romane Citizens. Claudius now disarming the Britaines, remitted further punishment either vpon their bodies or confiscation of their goods: The which his fauourable clemencie moued those distressed Britaines to such liking and loue, as they erected a Temple, and Alter in his name, and gaue him diuine honour, as a God: The rest, as vnable to resist, proffered their submissions, and promised a peaceable subiection vnder the Romans gouernment."

Camden's notes state "2. In the second coin (which is also one of Claudius Augustus) by this inscription, TI. CLAVD. CAES. AVG. GER. TR. P. XII. IMP. XIIX. we learn that in the twelfth year of his reign, after he had been successful in Britain, he was saluted Emperor the eighteenth time; and the ploughman with a cow and a bull inform us that at the same time a colony was placed in Camalodunum. The Romans (says Servius) clad after the Gabine fashion, (i.e. with part of their gown covering their head, and the other part tucked up,) when they had a design to build a city, yoked on the right hand a bull, with a cow on the inner side, and in that habit held the crooked plough-tail so as to make all the earth fall inwards. By thus drawing a furrow, they marked out the track of the walls, lifting up the plough where the place of the gates was to be."

The depiction of sulcus primigenius—the ritualized plowing of the planned course of the city wall for a new Roman colony—was a fairly common one on imperial Roman coins but, as early as 1807, it was being noted that the coin seemed to have vanished and to be otherwise unattested. Modern scholarship does not include any example of its type among Claudius's coins and it is unattested among the coins discovered at Colchester.

Notes: London: Sold by H. Moll over-against Devereux-Court in the Strand; Tho. Bowles, Print and Map-Seller near the Chapter-House in St. Paul's Church-Yard, and J. Bowles Print and Map-Seller over-against Stocks-Market. 1724.