Understanding Roman Gold Coinage Inside Out

Green, George; Ishida, K.; Hampshire, Bethany V.; Butcher, Kevin; Pollard, A. Mark; Hillier, A. D.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2021.105470

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…It also seems unlikely that they were made from melted down gold coins. Either they are ‘modern’ forgeries or, if ancient, we suggest they were most likely made from imperfectly refined ore. We note that future analysis of trace elements using other recently developed techniques [e.g., 60 , 61 ] may help fingerprint the metal and identify the source.…”

Section: Synthesis and Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Authenticating coins of the ‘Roman emperor’ Sponsian

et al. 2022

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The ‘Roman emperor’ Sponsian is known only from an assemblage of coins allegedly found in Transylvania (Romania) in 1713. They are very unlike regular Roman coins in style and manufacture, with various enigmatic features including bungled legends and historically mixed motifs, and have long been dismissed as poorly made forgeries. Here we present non-destructive imaging and spectroscopic results that show features indicative of authenticity. Deep micro-abrasion patterns suggest extensive circulation-wear. Superficial patches of soil minerals bound by authigenic cement and overlain by oxidation products indicate a history of prolonged burial then exhumation. These observations force a re-evaluation of Sponsian as a historical personage. Combining evidence from the coins with the historical record, we suggest he was most likely an army commander in the isolated Roman Province of Dacia during the military crisis of the 260s CE, and that his crudely manufactured coins supported a functioning monetary economy that persisted locally for an appreciable period.

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Section: Synthesis and Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regular Roman coins were made in large secure mint factories by striking pre-prepared blanks between officially sanctioned dies [ 61 ]. The dies were made of tough alloys and could be used tens of thousands of times before wearing out.…”

Section: Synthesis and Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Authenticating coins of the ‘Roman emperor’ Sponsian

et al. 2022

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“…To do this, we have employed a cutting-edge technique called muonic X-ray emission spectroscopy (µXES). We, and others, have previously shown that µXES produces congruent results with XRF on the surfaces of Roman gold coins and is capable of producing accurate results when analysing the centres of gold objects (Green et al 2021;Ninomiya et al 2015). The technique works by controlling the momentum of the muons and firing them at the sample, they then pass through the material and are eventually captured by the atoms well beneath the surface of the object.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Negative muons reveal the economic chaos of Rome’s AD 68/9 Civil Wars

Green

Ishida

Domoney

et al. 2022

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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During the AD 68/9 Civil Wars, Galba, Otho, Vitellius and then Vespasian fought for — and gained — control of the Roman Empire. Our textual sources suggest that this was a period of serious and sustained disruption. However, existing analyses of gold coinages produced in AD 68/9 show only a minor reduction in the purity of the gold coinage. Using X-ray fluorescence, we identify a number of heavily debased gold coins issued during the AD 68/9 Civil Wars, and many slightly debased coins issued in their immediate aftermath. We then confirm the interior composition of these coins totally non-destructively using muonic X-ray emission spectroscopy, thus eliminating hypothetical problems of ‘surface enrichment’ or compositional differences between ‘surface’ and ‘core’. Here we show that heavily debased Civil War gold coinages were indeed produced; that copper was used to debase Roman gold coins during this time, c. 185 years earlier than first shown; and that slightly debased gold coins were regularly issued in the years immediately after the Civil Wars. The metallurgical evidence from the gold coinage now allows us to show that the AD 68/9 Civil Wars caused significant and sustained disruption to the Roman economic system. More broadly, we have shown that muonic X-ray emission spectroscopy is a powerful tool for generating important archaeological conclusions from high-value cultural heritage objects that simply cannot be destructively analysed, but need to have their interior compositions sampled.

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“…[15][16][17] used Muon Induced X-ray Emission (MIXE), while the Ref. [18] used Muonic Atom X-ray Spectroscopy (MAXRS); all of which describe the same technique), a non-destructive technique, which was developed more than 40 years ago [14,[19][20][21], has recently been used extensively with pulsed muon beams for elemental analysis [16,18,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. The advantage of this technique is that it is able to probe deep into the material, up to a few millimeters, and does not lead to a severe radiation damage of the sample.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of a Continuous Muon Source for the Non-Destructive and Depth-Selective Elemental Composition Analysis by Muon Induced X- and Gamma-rays

et al. 2022

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The toolbox for material characterization has never been richer than today. Great progress with all kinds of particles and interaction methods provide access to nearly all properties of an object under study. However, a tomographic analysis of the subsurface region remains still a challenge today. In this regard, the Muon Induced X-ray Emission (MIXE) technique has seen rebirth fueled by the availability of high intensity muon beams. We report here a study conducted at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). It demonstrates that the absence of any beam time-structure leads to low pile-up events and a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with less than one hour acquisition time per sample or data point. This performance creates the perspective to open this technique to a wider audience for the routine investigation of non-destructive and depth-sensitive elemental compositions, for example in rare and precious samples. Using a hetero-structured sample of known elements and thicknesses, we successfully detected the characteristic muonic X-rays, emitted during the capture of a negative muon by an atom, and the gamma-rays resulting from the nuclear capture of the muon, characterizing the capabilities of MIXE at PSI. This sample emphasizes the quality of a continuous beam, and the exceptional SNR at high rates. Such sensitivity will enable totally new statistically intense aspects in the field of MIXE, e.g., elemental 3D-tomography and chemical analysis. Therefore, we are currently advancing our proof-of-concept experiments with the goal of creating a full fledged permanently operated user station to make MIXE available to the wider scientific community as well as industry.

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Understanding Roman Gold Coinage Inside Out

Cited by 13 publications

References 32 publications

Authenticating coins of the ‘Roman emperor’ Sponsian

Authenticating coins of the ‘Roman emperor’ Sponsian

Negative muons reveal the economic chaos of Rome’s AD 68/9 Civil Wars

Characterization of a Continuous Muon Source for the Non-Destructive and Depth-Selective Elemental Composition Analysis by Muon Induced X- and Gamma-rays

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