Experimental Roman Minting: Casting Silver-Copper Alloys into a Bronze Mould

This paper provides the details of a Roman minting experiment, which used a bronze mould to cast debased silver blanks typical of the third century A.D. The investigation follows the paper ''Experiments reproducing Roman debased alloys" (George, 2020) which studied the manufacturing m...

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Main Author: Nicola George
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: EXARC 2021-02-01
Series:EXARC Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10563
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spelling doaj-87b5367b93fc400a8b63a476c080bc462021-06-15T15:28:54ZengEXARCEXARC Journal2212-89562021-02-012021/1ark:/88735/10563Experimental Roman Minting: Casting Silver-Copper Alloys into a Bronze MouldNicola GeorgeThis paper provides the details of a Roman minting experiment, which used a bronze mould to cast debased silver blanks typical of the third century A.D. The investigation follows the paper ''Experiments reproducing Roman debased alloys" (George, 2020) which studied the manufacturing methods used in the production of Roman silver coinage. The purpose of those experiments was to both recreate the casting process used by ancient moneyers and test the suitability of different mould materials, including clay, limestone and bronze. Although the experimental moulds offered new insights into minting technologies, the initial bronze mould experiments failed to produce blanks with a silver content lower than 70 %. Upon reflection, this was caused by decisions made in the design process, such as the choice of coating agent, which negatively affected the success of the castings. The current investigation revisits the bronze mould experiments using a different release agent. and results of the second bronze mould experiment are presented here.https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10563coinroman eracastingsilverbronze agebronze
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Nicola George
spellingShingle Nicola George
Experimental Roman Minting: Casting Silver-Copper Alloys into a Bronze Mould
EXARC Journal
coin
roman era
casting
silver
bronze age
bronze
author_facet Nicola George
author_sort Nicola George
title Experimental Roman Minting: Casting Silver-Copper Alloys into a Bronze Mould
title_short Experimental Roman Minting: Casting Silver-Copper Alloys into a Bronze Mould
title_full Experimental Roman Minting: Casting Silver-Copper Alloys into a Bronze Mould
title_fullStr Experimental Roman Minting: Casting Silver-Copper Alloys into a Bronze Mould
title_full_unstemmed Experimental Roman Minting: Casting Silver-Copper Alloys into a Bronze Mould
title_sort experimental roman minting: casting silver-copper alloys into a bronze mould
publisher EXARC
series EXARC Journal
issn 2212-8956
publishDate 2021-02-01
description This paper provides the details of a Roman minting experiment, which used a bronze mould to cast debased silver blanks typical of the third century A.D. The investigation follows the paper ''Experiments reproducing Roman debased alloys" (George, 2020) which studied the manufacturing methods used in the production of Roman silver coinage. The purpose of those experiments was to both recreate the casting process used by ancient moneyers and test the suitability of different mould materials, including clay, limestone and bronze. Although the experimental moulds offered new insights into minting technologies, the initial bronze mould experiments failed to produce blanks with a silver content lower than 70 %. Upon reflection, this was caused by decisions made in the design process, such as the choice of coating agent, which negatively affected the success of the castings. The current investigation revisits the bronze mould experiments using a different release agent. and results of the second bronze mould experiment are presented here.
topic coin
roman era
casting
silver
bronze age
bronze
url https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10563
work_keys_str_mv AT nicolageorge experimentalromanmintingcastingsilvercopperalloysintoabronzemould
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