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Gold Plated Stater - Vosenos Dragon Contemporary Counterfeit
| Issuer | Cantii tribe (Celtic Britain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 10 BC - 5 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Stater |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Plain field bearing three raised linear bands traversing the flan diagonally, a schematic rendering derived from the classical wreathed head prototype common to British Celtic coinage. The surface is heavily degraded, with the thin gold plating substantially delaminated and the base metal core exposed, consistent with the contemporary counterfeit nature of the piece. The flan is irregular and poorly struck, characteristic of clandestine production imitating Cantian stater coinage of the late Iron Age. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Stylised Celtic horse advancing left, rendered in the abstract curvilinear tradition typical of late British Iron Age coinage. A bucranium (ox skull) device is positioned above the horse, while a horned serpent or dragon motif appears below, both serving as distinctive auxiliary symbols of the Vosenos type. The retrograde or native-script inscription VOSIINOS appears in the field before the horse, naming the issuing authority. The flan is irregular, the gold plating is partially preserved with visible flaking, and the overall execution is cruder than official Cantian issues, confirming its status as a contemporary counterfeit struck on a base metal core. |
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| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Additional information |
Contemporary counterfeits of Cantian staters — plated base-metal cores struck from genuine or copy dies — circulated alongside official issues with apparent regularity in the late first century BC, suggesting either that tribal authorities tolerated them or lacked the enforcement capacity to suppress them. The Vosenos type, attributed to a named ruler whose coinage spans a narrow window before the Claudian conquest made such issues obsolete, is already rare in genuine form. A plated survivor catalogued against BMC Iron Age 2513 rather than a primary reference number signals that this piece was recognised early as a fabricate, not a later forgery.