Gold Plated 1/4 Stater - Belgae Hampshire Thunderbolt / Geometric Type Contemporary Counterfeit

Contemporary counterfeits of Atrebatic quarter staters — produced by coating a bronze flan with gold wash — circulated alongside genuine issues during the late Iron Age, suggesting either that recipients couldn't or wouldn't distinguish them, or that local exchange networks tolerated the deception. The genuine Hampshire Thunderbolt type is associated with the Atrebates and Regini in the decades before Romanisation reshaped southern British coinage entirely. Whether this piece was struck by a skilled forger mimicking official production or by a satellite workshop operating with tacit permission remains an open question in the scholarship.