Neutron diffraction texture analysis for numismatics

Abstract

Neutron diffraction analysis has emerged as a powerful, non-invasive, non-destructive method in the field of numismatics. In this chapter we report on some preliminary results from the Incuse Coinage Project which explores methods employed by city-states in South Italy to produce a very distinctive regional form of silver currency, incuse coinage, during the sixth and fifth centuries BC. In order to understand what makes these minting procedures unique it is necessary to obtain data from incuse as well as non-incuse coinages, and we report on studies of twelve coins from mints in different cities and from different eras. Neutron texture and phase analyses can provide an insight into the processing of the metal during the production of coinage.