Currency Bar

A strip of iron about 1 1/2 inches wide and 2-3 feet long and pinched up at one end, which served as a unit of currency in Britain during the late Iron Age, before the introduction of coins by the Belgae. The bars may have originated as sword blanks or roughouts. Their distribution was mainly in Dorset and the Cotswolds, with some in the Severn basin.

Term used to describe long iron objects found in the British late Iron Age and thought to represent a form of currency. Three standard types have been identified — sword, spit and ploughshare; they are thought to represent regional preferences rather than different values.