Adulterations in first century bc: the case of Greek silver drachmae analyzed by X-ray methods

For coins, chemical differences that occur during preparation affect the elemental composition and can be used to identify the producing technologies and workshops and to distinguish between originals and counterfeits. In this study, we focus our attention on some Thassos silver tetradrachmae and on an important number of Apollonia–Dyrrhachium silver drachmae emitted by these Greek cities under Pompejus authority during the First Roman Civil War. All the analyzed coins were found on the territory of present Romania (ancient Dacia). The important presence of Apollonia–Dyrrhachium drachmae here can be explained by the hypothesis that these coins were probably used by Pompejus as payment for Dacian mercenaries. To analyze the elemental composition we used: 241Am gamma source based X-ray fluorescence and in vacuum 3 MeV protons particle induced X-ray emission. The following main categories were found: original coins, local (Barbarian) imitations, debased coins with silver content down to 70%, official (original dies) counterfeits of bronze, official counterfeits of tin, and plated coins—a bronze core covered by a 0.2–0.5 mm silver layer.