Politique et technologie. Observations sur les émissions monétaires romaines d'or de 253 à 364 - article ; n°151 ; vol.6, pg 141-170

Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu, Valeriu Zoran, Gheorghe Gheorghepoenarubordea, Liviusd Trache, Eugen Iacob, Ivo Lukanc, Constantin Ciortea

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Revue numismatique - Année 1996 - Volume 6 - Numéro 151 - Pages 141-170
Summary. - We present the results of the analyses regarding 97 golden coins from the years 253-364, made through the methods PIXE (95 sp.) and PIGE (75 sp.) at the Institut of Physics and Nuclear Engineering of Bucharest. These data are similar to those obtained some years ago by the French researchers. Putting together the perfectly compatible results of the two sets of analyses we did a série of samples for the periods : 253-268 ; 268-284 ; 284-305 ; 305-324 ; 324-337 and 337-364. Very often, our results emphasized the general outline of the development of the golden coinage proposed before, starting from a less abundant database. Concerning the refinement of the golden alloy, the analyses showed that the Romans had mastered a very efficient technology. Many coins have a gold contain of about or even surpassing 980 %o. It is also quite clear that those technical achievements had not suffered any major change during the period covered by the research. They were the same in all the mints. We believe that the Romans were able to measure the gold content, quite precisely, until an half of carat, it means until about 20 %o. The refining technics which they used were able virtually to reduce the copper and the silver from the content of alloy. It seems that all the coins containing more than 980 %o gold may been considered to be of « pure » gold, but in practice, even the pieces containing more than 960 %o may passed to be of « pure gold ». During the considered period we remarked that the legal standard of the golden coinage remained unchanged (« the pure gold »), but in fact, there were some reductions which, belong mainly to a political decision, more than to a technological incapability. It seems that, following the monetary reforms of Aurelianus and Diocletianus, not only the weight standard was improved and stabilized, but also the gold content, which tended to approach the legal standard of 23 1/2 carats, or sometimes, even to surpass it. During the years 305-324, in spite of the political and military troubles, the emperors found the resources to keep the unity and the high quality of the golden coinage, op- posite to what has happened in the field of billon coinage. We believe that the reduction of the gold content standard, which was considered before to have taken place around 317 was, in fact, later, at the end of the reign of Constantine I, being typical for the years 337-341. After a short period of recovering, a second strong devaluation took place around 351, when the average gold content of the coins arrived again at about 23 carats, as it has been during the reign of Claudius II. This reduction was a solution to the increasing demand of gold coins, which the metallic stock of the Empire could not supply at the previous quality standard. In the same time, we noticed an increase of the platinum traces in the coins, which we consider to be a consequence of the arrival of a growing quantity of gold in the Roman Empire, originated from the Uralo-Siberian area and brought to the Mediterranean region as a consequence of the Goths' migrations.
30 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: REVUE_NUMISMATIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1996
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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