Silver Plated Unit - Ecen Ecen Corn Ear 'E' Contemporary Counterfeit

Contemporary counterfeits of Iceni unit coinage are not crude forgeries in the modern sense — they circulated alongside official issues, likely accepted at face value, and were produced by smiths who understood the metallurgy well enough to apply a convincing silver wash over a bronze core. Detection required physical wear or damage. Many were never caught.

The Van Arsdell 732 series dates to the final decades before the Roman conquest of 43 AD, a period when Iceni tribal authority was already fracturing under client-king arrangements with Rome. Whether these plated pieces represent private opportunism or sanctioned emergency production remains unresolved.