Silver Plated Stater Cranborne Chase Contemporary Counterfeit

Cranborne Chase, the dense woodland straddling modern Dorset and Wiltshire, has produced more Iron Age coin finds per square mile than almost any comparably sized area in Britain — a density that reflects both intensive tribal activity and, evidently, a thriving local forgery trade. These silver-plated bronzes were not crude deceptions; the plating technique required genuine metallurgical skill, and many would have passed undetected until the silver skin cracked or wore through at the high points of the flan.

Van Arsdell catalogued them separately from official issues precisely because the core fabric is consistently bronze rather than debased silver.