For a while now I have been looking at the insides of coins, what can be seen of them. I have found several examples of struck silver coins which show a distinct layering effect; the surface layer has different properties from the interior, and there is sometimes evidence of further layering such as a discontinuity across the middle of the interior. This is an interesting specimen in this regard.
At first glance it looks like a
fourree, because a patch has broken off in just the same manner as the silver skin of a
fourree. But on this coin, there is no evidence of a base metal core. The exposed flat surface is dirty, but has no green discolouration as a base metal core might have, and at the edge, only solid silver can be seen; examination with a lens shows this to be so even deep inside the edge cracks which occur during striking. I actually probed at a suspicious
area on the edge with a knife, exposing only a silvery gleam.
So this would seem to be an unusually
good demonstration of the layered nature of a
denarius!
I started looking for this kind of thing when looking at coins which have crystallised or show other metallurgical deterioration, shown on my page:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/crystal_coins.htmlThe photos show the coin as a whole, a close-up of the
area round the flat exposed surface, and a close-up of a section of the edge.