The coin-issuing areas of Britain, in common with other outlying areas, began to issue coinage by tribe, and the coins were imitative. The earliest issues were local copies of various Belgic coins, themselves derived from various Greek issues. The gold and silver were for the most part derived from coins of Philip and Alexander of Macedon; it is often not easy to determine this from the coins. The bronze, a tin-rich alloy known as potin, either developed from very debased silver, or was produced by casting from local designs.

The last of the native coinage was issued, as far as we can tell, during Boudiccas rebellion in 61 AD. However, the tradition of imitative coinage continued apace. Imitations of Roman coins fall into three main series: Claudian imitations, usually of the type with reverse of Minerva; radiate imitations, copying the debased third-century antoninianii with radiate portraits, and diademed imitations of fourth-century bronzes. As official coinage tended to be scarce - London as a mint operated irregularly, and other mints only operated under Carausius, imitations seem to have been accepted faute de mien, judging from the vast quantities which survive.