Metallurgy and Ancient Coins: A Multidisciplinary Research

Coins are widely studied in archaeometry because they provide a lot of information on social, economic and technological history of people and territories which they are related to. A lot of chemical analyses have been performed by different methods, but only a few of metallographic data are known. The combination of chemical analysis with metallurgical investigation results in a complete description of the coin and its production steps. This paper reports a summary of the results on the Cu base coinage in Italy (Roman and Byzantine Empires) with the aim to develop a protocol of investigation based on microstructural and chemical analysis in order to reinforce the numismatic classification.