Agr Bitch. c.AD25-30. Silver unit. 15mm. 1.28g. AGR in centre, wreath border./ Bitch right, snake in paws, AGR below, beaded border. ABC 3005, VA−, BMC 1899, S 354. CCI 94.0881 (this coin). Near EF, large flan of bright silver, boldly struck bitch. Ex John Follows collection, ex Leu 31.10.2000, lot 35. EXTREMELY RARE only 13 others recorded, inc. one in the British Museum.

We don’t know what Agr looked like because there is no portrait of him. However, we do know how he wanted to be seen. An excessively rare Agr bronze unit which we sold in 2012 for £2,250 shows a Roman-style laureate head, just like the head on a bronze coin of his father Cunobelinus (ABC 2948). Dr John Sills suggests Agr may have acted as regent for Cunobelinus if the latter had made a diplomatic visit to Rome to see Tiberius. He says: “If a notional date c.AD 1 is taken for the start of Cunobelinus’ coinage, and the Agr gold and silver was struck a third of the way through his reign, this takes us close to the accession of Tiberius in AD 14…Other scenarios are plausible for Agr, not least that he was being groomed as a potential successor for Cunobelinus and was allowed to strike coinage while the king was engaged elsewhere on a military campaign or an internal diplomatic mission” (DK, p.758). Follows’ Agr unit depicts a bitch attacking a snake, which is why we think Agr’s full name was Agricu ‘war hound’. See Agr and his brothers, Chris Rudd List 124, July 2012, p.2-8. Over the years there has been much speculation about the AGR inscription on this highly significant silver coin. Two of the possible meanings considered were Agrippa and Agrippina. We believe that the most plausible interpretation is Agricu 'war-hound'. Just as four of Cunobelin's coins depict a visual pun on the canine component of his name (ABC 2846, 2891, 2894, 2990), so too does the bitch on this silver coin of Agr.