Silver deposits of America in coins of Antiquity and the Middle Ages

A.M. Tyurin

Key words : silver, lead isotopes, coins, Antiquity, Middle Ages, New time.

 

In the 16-18 centuries, silver from the American colonies of Spain came in large quantities to Europe. Approximately 300 tons per year. They made coins from silver. This resulted in the years 1520-1650. to inflation (great Price Revolution). Silver was mined in the mines of Peru and Mexico. In Peru, there were two mines: Lima and Potosí (today Potosí on the territory of Bolivia). In these colonies, coins were also minted from their silver.

Silver ores contain lead and copper minerals. Lead has four isotopes – stable 204Pb and radioactive 206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb. When silver is extracted from the ore, lead gets into it with the content of isotopes characteristic of each specific deposit. By their ratio, you can determine the time of its formation. Silver deposits of Betik (southern Spain) and the Cardillera mountain system have an age of <120 Ma. The same age of deposits of the Aegean region and Asia Minor. The age of deposits in Central Europe is 250-400 million years. The age of the Potosí deposit (10 coins) is 95-252 Ma, Mexico (8 coins) is -19-48 Ma, Lima (1 coin) is 205 Ma. The age of deposits by lead isotopes is determined by the model. Sometimes it turns out negative. Silver from American mines began to flow into Europe in the 16th century. The handbook contains the following information: “Between 750 and 1200 n er Silver deposits were discovered and developed in Germany (near the cities of Chemnitz, Rammelsberg, Goslar), in Austria-Hungary and Eastern Europe. ”[2]. That is, silver coins mines of Central Europe began to mint no earlier than the 8th century.

The authors of the publication [3] performed a comparison of isotope “portraits” of silver coins of different eras and different regions. Antique Coins (24, 5 century BC – 2 century AD), Medieval Europe (7, 14 – mid 16th century), and Spain (16, end 12 – early 16th century), Europe (2, 16-18 century) and Spain (23, 16-18 century), were compared with the coins of America, made of silver deposits Potosi (10), Lima (1) and Mexico (8). In the coins of Medieval Spain, a separate group “Catholic Kings” was singled out (8, end 15 – early 16th century). In parentheses indicate the number of coins and their chronological interval. The authors of the publication operated on the ratio of isotopes of lead, silver and copper.  

The results of the comparison showed that the number of coins from Potosi silver in Europe does not correspond to its incoming volumes. The authors of the publication [4] localized the problem “Where did Potosí silver go?”. They formulated an assumption: it came not to Europe, but to China through the Pacific Ocean. So, in the publications to which the links are given above, the problem is indicated and its hypothesis is formulated.

We have analyzed the actual data given in the publication [3]. The identification of silver deposits from copper isotopes has not yet been sufficiently tested. We will not consider this data. Data on silver isotopes are considered selectively. Identification methods for silver deposits by the ratio of lead isotopes have been developing since the 1970s (after the appearance of the first mass spectrometers). Immediately an unexpected result was obtained. “As for the Egyptian silver objects found in Mycenae, they were made of silver mined in Lavrio, exported to Egypt. Things made in Egypt from Athenian silver were brought to Mycenae ”[1]. Silver coins of Antiquity were also studied [5]. That is, these methods are already generally accepted in the new scientific discipline of archaeochemistry.

According to the results of the analysis, we identified clusters of isotopic “portraits” of coins (Fig. 1).

 

Fig. 1 – Clusters of silver coins of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the New Age according to their isotopic “portrait” 
(lead). Measurement error is less than character size. 
Values ​​on the vertical and horizontal axes correspond to the ratio of lead isotopes (signed)

 

Cluster A. 
Four coins: 3 Mexican and 1 Spanish 16-18 centuries. The silver age of two Mexican coins is negative (-3 and -19 Ma), one is the minimum (2 Ma). The age of the Spanish coin is 12 million years. Average 109Ag – -0.66. Conclusion: the coin of Spain of 16-18 centuries is made of silver of Mexico.

B. cluster 
12 coins of Greece, Macedonia and Athens (5-3 centuries BC). The age of silver deposits is -4-53 Ma, which corresponds to the age of deposits in the region. Average 109Ag – -0.05.

Cluster B. 
Only 30 coins.

Five coins of Mexico: the age of silver is 31 Ma, the average of 109Ag is -0.67.

Six coins of Potosi: the age of silver is 97 million years. 109Ag has a wide range of values ​​from -0.98 to +1.52.

Six coins of the Catholic kings: the age of silver is 76 million years. The average 109Ag of four coins is 0.09, the others are 0.71 and 1.09.

Four coins of Spain of 16-18 centuries: the age of silver is 56 million years, 109Ag has a wide range of values ​​from -0.73 to +0.56.

Two coins of Europe 16-18 centuries: the age of silver – 62 million years. Average 109Ag – 0.34.

Seven coins of Antiquity: the age of silver is 104 million years, the average 109Ag is -0.53.  

Conclusions on cluster B:

1. Coins of the Catholic Kings are made from a mixture of silver from Potosi and Mexico. Their date is “no earlier than the 16th century.”

2. Coins of Spain of the 16-18th centuries are made of silver from Mexico (sub-cluster B-1).

3. Coins of Europe from the 16th and 18th centuries are made of silver from Mexico (sub-cluster B-1).

4. Antique coins are made of Potosi silver (sub-cluster B-2), including: coins of Greece (1), Parthia (1), Gaul (2) and Rome (3). Their date is “no earlier than the 16th century.”

Cluster G. 
The coin of Spain of 16-18 centuries (age of silver – 151 million years, 109Ag – 0.39) is made of silver from the Potosi deposit. 

Cluster D. 
Six coins of Spain of 16-18 centuries are made of silver deposits of Lima. From it, perhaps, made coins of Medieval Europe and Spain.

Cluster E. 
Coins of Medieval Spain, Catholic Kings and Greece (silver age 331-354 Ma) are made of silver deposits from Central Europe. The coin of Greece is made of it. Date of the last “not earlier than the 16th century.”

Two Peruvian coins are not made of silver deposits Potosi and Lima. Four coins of Antiquity (in the figure they are indicated by indices) are not made of silver from deposits of the Mediterranean or America. The age of the silver deposit of which the Phoenicia coin is made is negative. The age of the silver deposits from which the remaining three coins are made is 193-441 million years. This corresponds to the fields of Central Europe. Their date is “no earlier than the 16th century.”

Total data for 24 coins of Antiquity. Of these, 12 (50%) coins of Greece, Macedonia and Athens are made of silver deposits.Aegean region and Asia Minor. We cannot date them. Seven coins (29%) are made of silver Potosi. Their date is “not earlier than the 16th century”. Four coins (17%) are made from silver deposits of Central Europe. Their date is “not earlier than the 8th century”. The Phenicia coin is made of silver, the isotopic composition of the lead impurity in which does not correspond to known deposits. There are 5 coins of Rome (136-82 BC), Gaul 2 (80-50 BC). Coins of Gaul and 3 coins of Rome are dated “not earlier than the 16th century”. The remaining two coins of Rome (they did not get into the selected clusters, in the figure they are indicated by the “P” index) are made of silver deposits from Central Europe. They are dated “not earlier than the 8th century.” In the sample there are no coins of Gaul and Rome, made from non-silver deposits of Central Europe and Potosi.

The six coins of the Catholic Kings are made from a mixture of silver from Potosi and Mexico. Their date is “no earlier than the 16th century.” One coin – from silver deposits of Central Europe. Most likely, the two remaining coins are also made of this silver.

So where did the silver of Potosi go? To Europe. “Antique” coins of Rome and Gaul are made from it, as well as part of the “antique” coins of Greece and medieval Europe, including coins of the Catholic kings. Coins of 16-18 centuries are made of it.  

Literature

1. Martynov AI, Sher Ya. A. Methods of archaeological research: Proc. manual for university students. M .: Higher. Shk., 1989, 223 p. 

2. Europe’s inexhaustible silver. Information and Analytical Center “Mineral”. http://www.mineral.ru

3. Anne-Marie Desaulty, Philippe Telouk, Emmanuelle Albalat and Francis Albarède. Isotopic Ag-Cu-Pb record of silver circulation through 16th-18th century Spain. Proceeding of the United States of America. May 31, 2011 vol. 108 no. 22

4. Anne-Marie Desaulty and Francis Albarede. Cooper, lead, and silver stuart Europe. Geology, February 2013, v. 41, p. 135-138, First published on November 6, 2012.

5. Brill RH, Shields WR Lead Isotopes in Ancient Coins. Reprinted from Methods of Chemicals and Metallurgical Investigation of Ancient Coinage. Royal Numismatic Society special publication no. 8, 1972. pp. 272-303.

6. Interpretation of lead isotope data. Oxford Archaeological Lead Isotope Database. oxalid.arch.ox.ac.uk

(article received 04/20/2017)