ABSTRACT

A study was undertaken by an interdisciplinary group of COSCH researchers between 2014 and 2016, to record and examine silver coins believed to be ancient Roman in origin. The aim was to evaluate the suitability of various advanced, non-invasive optical and spectrometric techniques for analysing the physical characteristics and elemental composition of numismatic objects. In order to compare results, the same two silver coins were used throughout the study: two denarii portraying Empress Faustina I, wife of Antoninus Pius, believed to be posthumous deification issues of AD 141. The questions addressed included the characterization and authentication of test coins, as well as technical issues in the multimodal recording of material cultural heritage with metadata and paradata. The team investigated whether the methods chosen for this case study responded to the needs of numismatists, and whether they could feasibly be applied in museum practice, to support research and conservation of historic coins, and to enhance the documentation and dissemination of numismatic objects through heritage science.

Keywords: numismatic studies, Roman silver coins, examination, optical techniques, multimodal recording, COSCH

Background and Purpose of the Study

This chapter introduces an experimental study of two silver coins, believed to be ancient Roman, and discusses some of its interdisciplinary outcomes. We undertook to investigate, in collaboration with other international researchers, how historic coins are examined and documented, and what is the role of modern, non-invasive optical and spectrometric technologies in today's numismatic research and museum practice. The network Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage (COSCH) facilitated research contacts between experts representing a wide range of interdisciplinary interests and expertise in optical, metrological and imaging technologies and material sciences. Benefiting from this combined expertise and access to specialist equipment, at a level that is rarely available to museums, this case study was designed to explore which of the advanced technologies available to us could enhance numismatic research and conservation, and museum practice in general. Therefore, our main objectives were:

• to assess current research and documentation practice: how are historic coins in numismatic museum collections being examined and recorded, presented and disseminated in the 2010s? What is the role of digital methods?

• to apply a wide range of optical and spectrometric techniques to measure and examine, and present the test coins;

• to compare the results of different technologies applied for the same purpose, in particular to compare the geometric measurements achieved through several 3D techniques;