PIXE analysis of medieval silver coins

Journal Article · Fri Jan 15 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Materials Characterization

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.MATCHAR.2009.10.008· OSTI ID:22066171

Gharbi, F ^[1]; Roumie, M ^[2]; Baccouche, S ^[1]; Romdhane, K Ben ^[3]; Nsouli, B ^[2]; Trabelsi, A ^[1]

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1. Centre National des Sciences et Technologies Nucleaires (CNSTN), Pole technologique, 2020 Sidi Thabet, Tunis (Tunisia)
2. IBA Laboratory, Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission, National Council for Scientific Research, 11-8281, Beirut (Lebanon)
3. Faculte des lettres et des sciences humaines, Universite de Tunis (Tunisia)

We applied the proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analytical technique to twenty-eight medieval silver coins, selected from the Tunisian treasury. The purpose is to study the fineness evolution from the beginning of the 7th to the 15th centuries AD. Each silver coin was cleaned with a diluted acid solution and then exposed to a 3 MeV proton beam from a 1.7 MV tandem accelerator. To allow the simultaneous detection of light and heavy elements, a funny aluminum filter was positioned in front of the Si(Li) detector entrance which is placed at 135{sup o} to the beam direction. The elements Cu, Pb, and Au were observed in the studied coins along with the major component silver. The concentration of Ag, presumably the main constituent of the coins, varies from 55% to 99%. This significant variation in the concentration of the major constituent reveals the economical difficulties encountered by each dynasty. It could be also attributed to differences in the composition of the silver mines used to strike the coins in different locations. That fineness evolution also reflects the poor quality of the control practices during this medieval period. In order to verify the ability of PIXE analytical method to distinguish between apparently similar coins, we applied hierarchical cluster analysis to our results to classify them into different subgroups of similar elemental composition.

• OSTI ID: 22066171
• Journal Information: Materials Characterization, Vol. 61, Issue 1; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1044-5803
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM
COPPER
GOLD
LEAD
LI-DRIFTED SI DETECTORS
MEV RANGE
MULTI-ELEMENT ANALYSIS
PIXE ANALYSIS
PROTON BEAMS
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
SILVER
X RADIATION