41 - 54, Claudius I, AE Dupondius, Irregular (barbarous) issue struck after 43AD in Britannia

Obverse: Blundered legend. Bare head of Claudius I facing left.
Reverse: Blundered legend. Ceres, veiled, seated facing left, holding grain ears and long torch.
Diameter: 26mm | Weight: 9.5gms | Die Axis: 11h
SPINK: 745
Green Patina. Scarce. Found near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, UK

These irregular coins are associated with the Claudian invasion of Britain in 43AD. It appears likely that the authorities allowed them to be struck to augment the scanty supply of bronze from the central mint of Rome and the evidence available from museums and recorded in numismatic literature would seem to bear this out.
Although it is difficult to work out the proportion that these copies bear to the official issues on a national scale, it is quite evident that it is of a considerable size, about 20% on an average over the whole area in which Claudian coins are found, and in some localities well over 50%. When you consider that the actual area over which these coins are found exactly covers the areas of the first conquests, and there are no credible reasons for supposing them to be Gallic importations, the likelihood is that they were struck in Britain itself. Those barbarous examples found beyond the Fosse Way bear witness to the spread of the new coinage, and also to its continuance during the subsequent years of conquest..
The actual types found are equally strong evidence for the connection of these copies with the Claudian legions. Copies of Sestertii are rare, Dupondii less so, but the majority, about 70% of the Claudian copies found in England, are Asses.
Irregular issues of all the foregoing types are found in varying stages of degradation, ranging from coins which show all the detail, and much of the excellence of the official prototypes, down to rough unskilful productions of crude and barbarous style.
The majority of copies, particularly the good ones, have been found in or near the towns which were either administrative and/or military centres, such as Lincoln and Gloucester. This seems to indicate that the coining of irregular issues were, if not official, an acceptable method of supplementing the military funds to pay the troops during the conquest. The first generation copies, since they were intended for paying the soldiers, were fairly accurate in style and weight. In time though, once they had circulated through the tribal centres and the lands that lay between and behind the chief Roman military posts and been absorbed into currency, the copies would themselves be copied. These second-degree copies became proportionately less faithful to the originals and are extremely numerous at such tribal centres as Cirencester, Silchester, Winchester and Dorchester, which were civil, but not military, towns.