The name of a new Iron Age ruler or king has been discovered emblazoned on a 2,000 year-old coin that was uncovered in a field in Hampshire.

Dating from around 50 BC and made of gold, the coin is stamped with the name Esunertos, a previously unrecorded Iron Age ruler, according to Southwest News Service.

The find has been described by experts as "one of the outstanding discoveries of recent decades".

About the size of a fingernail, the coin was dug up in a farmer's field after someone with a metal detector found it this year. Their name and location of the exact site has not been disclosed.

The coin dates back to the very beginning of written language in the British Isles and was struck sometime between 50 and 30 BC, shortly after Julius Caesar's first Roman raid of Britain.

He landed on the Kent coast from a fleet of ships carrying 20,000 Roman soldiers. Waiting for them on the beach were thousands of Celtic warriors. The Romans were forced to return home after struggling to land, with rough seas wrecking their boats. Caesar then returned the following year with 50,000 soldiers defeating many tribes and marched all the way to the River Thames.

After three months of fighting, they turned back in order to stop a rebellion in France—so the long-term settlement in Britain by Rome didn't occur until 43 AD when Claudius was emperor.

Since its discovery in March, leading Iron Age experts have studied the coin and deduced it to be struck by a pre-eminent male figure dubbed ‘IISVNIRTOS' whose name translates as ‘Mighty as the God Esos'.

One theory is that he possibly ruled as King from nearby Danebury Hill fort.

Dr. John Sills of the Celtic Coin Index at the Ashmolean Museum said: "It is one of the outstanding discoveries of recent decades in Celtic numismatics."

Iron Age Coin Specialist Gregory Edmund at Spink auctioneers led the team of experts recording this new find and touted the relic, which is up for auction September 28.

"This fabulous piece of prehistoric artwork completes the mental image we have when we think of Iron Age Britain – the war horse and chariot. But it also surprises us with the appearance of classical languages like Latin.

"This is the reason I come to work; to document the discoveries of national importance and share that knowledge directly with museums, academics, collectors, and the public at large.

"I focused my university degree on the Roman invasion of Britain through the lens of Britain's first coinage. To now add a critically important contemporary witness to those seismic events in the birth of our island's story is electrifying.

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"Despite the coin's diminutive size, the name of its conceiver—Esunertos—now truly echoes down the ages."

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