Rome and the East. Production of Roman Provincial Silver Coinage for Caesarea in Cappadocia Under Vespasian, Ad 69–79

Abstract

During the first three centuries AD several eastern provinces of the Roman empire produced silver coinages of specijically local denominations and types. It has been claimed that at certain periods the mint of Rome was employed to strike some of these coinages, rather than the provincial mints to which the coins are traditionally attributed. This claim is based mainly on stylistic observations, but because style is regarded as subjective, some other form of evidence to support these observations is desirable. In this paper three types of coin are submitted to metallurgical analysis: silver denarii struck at Rome; Roman-style provincial silver coinage; and 'local' style provincial silver coinage. The aim is to discover whether the Rome-style and 'local' style coins have different trace element projiles, and whether these might indicate different ore sources or reJining techniques. The results are then compared with Roman denarii to see whether there are any similarities between the denarii and the Rome-style provincial silver coins.

The Roman Denarius Under the Julio‐claudian Emperors: Mints, Metallurgy and Technology

“…Another possibility is that we are witnessing a single mint, with blanks being produced in two different places. This suggestion is perhaps less improbable than it might seem: our previous work (Butcher and Ponting 1995) has demonstrated that what appears to be a single silver coinage (in this case provincial issues of Vespasian for Caesarea in Cappadocia) could be produced at two separate mints; the production of blanks in two separate places for a single mint would simply be a variation on this scheme. There are other examples from the Roman world of parts for products being produced in different places to those where they were completed (e.g.…”

“…It therefore seems clear that the silver content of Nero's post‐64 denarii is 80% across most of the issues defined by Mac Dowall, considerably lower than Walker's figure of 93%. This is the silver standard of 1 part copper to 4 parts silver that we find employed later, under Vespasian and Trajan (Butcher and Ponting 1995; 1998). The only exception seems to be the very last issue, 3b; the two examples of this group that were analysed both had silver bullion contents of about 90% (88.2% and 89.1% respectively).…”

“…Minting authorities in the past were experts at disguising the declining silver contents of their coinages; this is only now becoming recognized by numismatists and ancient historians, despite the warning signals given by Cope back in 1974 and Cowell in 1989. In our 1995 paper (Butcher and Ponting 1995), we presented the results of a study of the Flavian silver denarius coinage and the contemporary issues of Caesarea in Cappadocia, which clearly demonstrated that the silver coinage of this period has a substantial artificially produced surface layer of metal that is heavily enriched in silver, and which almost resembles plating. We also showed how this depletion silvering means that the so‐called ‘non‐destructive’ surface and sub‐surface analytical techniques preferred by curators and collectors are useless for estimating the silver content of the coinage alloy that was mixed in the mint.…”

Analysis of the Hoard of Beçin using X‐ray‐based techniques

“…Bismuth is also reduced during this process, but it is accepted that its concentration in metallic silver reflects to some extent to that of the parent ore. The cupellation process, on the other hand, does not affect the gold concentration . Bismuth and gold appear to be then the most important elements related with the original type of the ore, although repeated recycling will gradually homogenize any groupings that may have once existed.…”

“…In this method, the ore would be smelted to produce Ag‐rich lead, followed by oxidation to remove most of the lead (as lead oxide) concentrating of the silver in the remaining lead. The silver would be then extracted in small vessels (cupeles) containing bone ash . In this process, most of the remaining lead was removed, but some would inevitably remain, and can be used as an indication of the effectiveness of the procedure.…”