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Author Topic: The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage  (Read 2329 times)

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Offline jmuona

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The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage
« on: April 10, 2015, 05:30:39 am »
The Butcher & Ponting's book on the metallurgy of Roman silver coins from Nero to Trajan has been published, finally. I have not obtained my copy as of yet, but at one stage one could obtain numerous sections of the book to view over the internet - in five page "surprise me" selections - and I spent a lot of time looking at those. Certainly very interesting stuff and much new information, including new data on the CE 68-69 issues and mints. The book is expensive, the cheapest I could find around EU was a Swedish internet site Bokus for 140 €, but it is 800-pages long. Apparently a Kindle version will come out as well.
Having given many rare coins for the authors to sample I feel obliged to advertise this book. It nicely demonstrates how collectors and dealers can be really useful - even essential sometimes - in helping historians and archeologists in scientific studies. The original provenance of coins is certainly important, but the present volume demonstrates that individual coins have other scientific dimensions as well. In a way it all boils down to an old idea. One has to ask the right questions, the ones coins can answer. Butcher and Ponting have taken it to the level of trace-metals, isotopes and known ores with really interesting results.

The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage From the Reform of Nero to the Reform of Trajan
Kevin Butcher & Matthew Ponting
isbn: 9781107027121

s.
Jyrki Muona

Offline traveler

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Re: The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2015, 09:22:47 am »
Very interesting. There are also some preview pages on Google books.

It looks like Domitian was the only emperor who improved the silver standard for any length in time.

Offline David Atherton

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Re: The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2015, 09:00:09 am »
I picked this book up last month and recommend it highly! A lot of ground is covered here and one can certainly see why it took so long to assemble the data. Science, history, and numismatics combine to make this a most compelling read. It's not cheap, but well worth skipping a coin purchase or two to obtain it.

Hands down this is my number one book purchase of 2015!

Offline PeterD

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Re: The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2015, 09:55:18 am »
 +++
Peter, London

Historia: A collection of coins with their historical context https://www.forumancientcoins.com/historia

Offline traveler

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Re: The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2016, 01:09:19 am »
Hi all,

I'm only finished about 180 pages of this 830 page work, but it's been a fascinating (but sometimes technical) book. The authors provide a very comprehensive literature review of previous works, which makes their book an excellent starting point for further reading if desired. I thought I'd share some of the interesting points I've noted so far, for those interested:

-Although the focus is on Nero to Trajan, the authors also analysed Antony's legionary series, the fineness of which is about 80%.
-The authors managed to test some of the Julio-Claudian denarii, which were consistently about 100% pure silver bullion (which includes trace elements which the Romans were unaware of, e.g. zinc, arsenic).
-Apparently Republican denarii could not be guaranteed to be 100% pure, which necessitated further refinement if they were recycled.
-Hoard patterns: Julio-Claudian denarii were largely absent from hoards in Italy, although they are present in hoards from other western provinces such as Britain. However Republican denarii were plentiful from hoards in Italy.
-The authors managed to establish likely target weights for gold and silver, for well preserved aurei and denarii.
-The authors also confirmed the existence of a deliberate silver enriched layer, which they also illustrated with cross-sectional images.
-Due to the thick enriched silver layer, non-destructive analytical methods will likely be inaccurate.
-The mint move from Lugdunum to Rome can be marked by an increase in the trace elements in the denarii. Specifically Nero's post reform denarii have higher lead, arsenic and zinc content which are believed to be due to laxer refining standards at Rome.

Offline DzikiZdeb

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Re: The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2021, 01:52:59 pm »
Anyone knows what happened to the plans for the next volumes?

Proffesor Ponting gave a lecture in Krakow a few years ago (I believe it was 2016, or 2017) and said that the experimental part for coins from IInd century to times of Commodus is complete and only the descriptive part for volume II remains, and that they have a scientific grant for examining coins from the first half of the third century. No announcement has been made since then, and http://sace.liv.ac.uk/romansilver/home/ has stopped working.

 

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