Analysis of Roman Silver coins, Augustus to the reform of Trajan (27 BC - AD 100)

In 2001 funding was obtained from the Leverhulme Trust (Grant No. RF&G/6/2002/0336) and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Research Committee and the University Research Board of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon to undertake a one year project to apply this methodology to the coinage of the first Imperial dynasty, that of the Julio-Claudians. A more sensitive analytical technique was employed, inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), that enabled much better quality data for important trace elements, such as arsenic, tin and bismuth, to be obtained. These data, together with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), micro-analysis (SEM-EDS), optical microscopy (metallography) and some limited lead isotope analysis by laser ablation multi-collector inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) form the basis of a series of publications in print (Butcher and Ponting 2005a), in press (Butcher and Ponting 2005b) and in preparation.

In 2006 a second stage of the project was awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) over three years (Grant ID: 119434). This project used the same suite of analytical techniques to investigate a much larger number of coins, including an expanded programme of lead isotope analyses (by thermal ionisation mass spectrometry). The first stage of this project resulted in a number of journal publications and contributions to edited volumes (Butcher et al. 2009; Butcher and Ponting 2012; Ponting 2009 and 2012). In 2014 a substantial monograph will be published that brings together and discusses the results from all the above projects covering Roman Imperial silver coinage up until the Reform of Trajan. It is the raw data upon which this monograph is based that are archived here.