Isotopic Ag-Cu-Pb record of silver circulation through 16th-18th century Spain

Estimating global fluxes of precious metals is key to understanding early monetary systems. This work adds silver (Ag) to the metals (Pb and Cu) used so far to trace the provenance of coinage through variations in isotopic abundances. Silver, copper, and lead isotopes were measured in 91 coins from...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 108; no. 22; pp. 9002 - 9007
Main Authors:	Desaulty, Anne-Marie, Telouk, Philippe, Albalat, Emmanuelle, AlbarÃ¨de, Francis
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States National Academy of Sciences 31-05-2011 National Acad Sciences
Series:	From the Cover
Subjects:	Coinage Coins Copper Copper - chemistry Earth Sciences Europe Geology Isotopes Lead Lead - chemistry Lead isotopes Mass Spectrometry - methods Metals - chemistry Mexico monetary systems Numismatics Physical Sciences Provenance Sciences of the Universe Signatures Silver Silver - chemistry Silver mining Smelting Social Sciences Spain Thermodynamics Andes region Mexico Spain Western European region Europe Spanish Americas Price Revolution silver coinage MC-ICPMS
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Summary:	Estimating global fluxes of precious metals is key to understanding early monetary systems. This work adds silver (Ag) to the metals (Pb and Cu) used so far to trace the provenance of coinage through variations in isotopic abundances. Silver, copper, and lead isotopes were measured in 91 coins from the East Mediterranean Antiquity and Roman world, medieval western Europe, 16th-18th century Spain, Mexico, and the Andes and show a great potential for provenance studies. Pre-1492 European silver can be distinguished from Mexican and Andean metal. European silver dominated Spanish coinage until Philip III, but had, 80 y later after the reign of Philip V, been flushed from the monetary mass and replaced by Mexican silver.
Bibliography:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1018210108 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 PMCID: PMC3107326 Edited* by Donald J. DePaolo, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved April 13, 2011 (received for review December 6, 2010) Author contributions: A.-M.D. and F.A. designed research; A.-M.D. and P.T. performed research; E.A. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; A.-M.D. and E.A. analyzed data; and A.-M.D. and F.A. wrote the paper.
ISSN:	0027-8424 1091-6490
DOI:	10.1073/pnas.1018210108