Gold Plated ¼ Stater Clacton Cross / Voided Cross Contemporary Counterfeit

Contemporary counterfeits of Iron Age staters and fractional pieces were produced across southern Britain and Gaul throughout the late pre-Roman period, typically by stripping the thin gold wash over a base-metal core — a fraud detectable even then by cutting or biting. The Clacton type belongs to a regional coinage tradition of Essex and the Thames estuary zone, and a plated subærate forgery of this denomination implies enough legitimate gold currency in local circulation to make imitation worth the effort and risk.