Crossword Genius

Ancient silver beads oddly missing (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

aged

'ancient' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'silver beads oddly missing' is the wordplay.
'silver' becomes 'ag' (Ag is the chemical symbol for silver).
'oddly missing' means one should take alternating letters.
The alternate letters of 'beads' are 'ed'.
'ag'+'ed'='AGED'

(Other definitions for aged that I've seen before include "Very old, person or wine" , "Long in the tooth" , "Mature" , "Old or ancient" , "Grew old" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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