Gold Plated Stater - Volisios Dumnocoveros Tigirseno Contemporary Counterfeit Mule

Mules combining the names of Volisios Dumnocoveros and Tigirseno are among the most debated issues in Late Iron Age British numismatics — the pairing of two distinct tribal authorities on a single coin suggests either a brief political alliance in the Corieltavian territory or, more likely given this example's plated bronze fabric, the work of a contemporary forger exploiting that very ambiguity to pass debased metal. Plated counterfeits of this period were not crude operations; the gold surface was applied with enough competence to fool casual exchange.

The Corieltavian naming convention — stacking multiple ruler names across a coinage — makes authentication genuinely difficult, which forgers demonstrably understood.