Theminting/mining nexus: New understandings of Archaic Greek silver coinage fromlead isotope analysis

Book chapter

Davis, Gillan and Stos-Gale, Zofia Anna. (2020). Theminting/mining nexus: New understandings of Archaic Greek silver coinage fromlead isotope analysis. In In Davis, G. and Sheedy, Kenneth (Ed.). Metallurgy in Numismatics 6: Mines, Metals and Money:Ancient World Studies in Science, Archaeology and History pp. 87-100 The Royal Numismatic Society.
AuthorsDavis, Gillan and Stos-Gale, Zofia Anna
EditorsDavis, G. and Sheedy, Kenneth
Abstract

This paper presents fresh interpretations of 160 lead isotope analyses of Archaic Greek coins on the OXALID database based on new data for ore sources in Spain, Sardinia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Turkey and Iran. It demonstrates that the earliest minters used far more diverse metal sources than the literary evidence suggests, and engaged in what could be described as opportunistic minting. Some currently held views on the importance of Siphnian silver, Peisistratid access to Thracian silver, the sources of Aiginetan, Thasian and Chian silver, the use of gold and tin as tracers for Siphnian and Lavrion silver, and the mixing of silver are challenged. Thoughts are offered on how archaic minting drove intensification of mining.

Keywordscoins; minting; silver; Greece; Siphnian; Thacian; Laurion
Page range87-100
Year01 Jan 2020
Book titleMetallurgy in Numismatics 6: Mines, Metals and Money:Ancient World Studies in Science, Archaeology and History
PublisherThe Royal Numismatic Society
Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
Edition56
ISBN978-0-901405-37-1
Open accessOpen access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Publisher's version
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All rights reserved
File Access Level
Open
Publication process dates
Deposited14 Dec 2021
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