Classics & Ancient History » RACOM News & Events

Muon testing on Hellenistic and Roman Republic coins

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 11:10:00 GMT

Between Wednesday 28 November and Monday 2 November the RACOM team carried out an experiment at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire. The objective was to measure the depth of surface enrichment in late Hellenistic and Roman Republican coins of varying degrees of fineness using negative muons. The technique allows us to measure the proportions of silver and copper at different depths within the body of each coin. These coins will now be analysed using various surface and sub-surface sampling techniques to see whether these latter techniques can overcome the surface enrichment.

A look at what went on RACOM project photos

Coinage & Imperialism Exhibition

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 12:58:00 GMT

Silver coinage formed the backbone of state finance in Classical antiquity. The fineness and quality of a coinage is often taken by historians to be a comment on the fiscal health of the issuing state. Until recently little was known about fineness and composition. The Silver coins currently on display in the Antiquities Cabinet, on the second floor of the Faculty of Arts Building (FAB), belong to the University of ��TV's collection and most form part of the European Research Council funded, Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean, 200 BCE - 64 CE (RACOM) Project.

It's worth a look!

Measuring debasement in antiquity

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 15:51:00 GMT

Professor Kevin Butcher presented at the Third International Congress on the History of Money and Numismatics in the Mediterranean World in Antalya, Turkey 1st to 4th April 2024. The aim of the congress, limited to the Mediterranean region, was to bring together distinguished scholars working on the history of money and numismatics related to the Mediterranean world, to share original research findings, draw attention to the cultural and economic diversity that has shaped the Mediterranean from the Lydians to Islamic states, as well as highlight the monetary and economic history of Anatolia.

Congress Programme

Ancient monetary policy could be seriously aggressive!

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 11:05:00 GMT

How plundered Gaulish silver ended up in Roman coins (economist.com)

AS big as their empire was, the Romans never reached Greenland. Yet that remote island has become the place to go for those interested in ancient economic history. Greenland’s ice sheets preserve traces of atmospheric lead emitted in Europe and north Africa as part of the silver-making process. Since silver coins were ubiquitous in antiquity, fluctuations in lead levels serve as a proxy for the ups and downs of the ancient money supply.

Sometimes, though, such evidence throws up contradictions. In a paper published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences Jonathan Wood, an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool and his colleagues, offer an explanation. They suggest the Romans turned to recycling, of both their own silver, and—at the point of a pilum—other people’s.

RACOM Conference BSR, Rome, ITALY, April 17th & 18th 2023

Tue, 09 May 2023 13:03:01 GMT

Lucia Carbone, Andrew M. Burnett Associate Curator for Roman Coins at the American Numismatic Society summarizes 2 Day Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean (200 BCE–64 CE) Conference 17/18th April 2023 at the British School at Rome, Rome, Italy.

Day One: Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean (200 BCE–64 CE) Conference: Part I - American Numismatic Society

Day Two: Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean (200 BCE–64 CE) Conference, Part 2 - American Numismatic Society

RACOM Conference BSR, Rome, ITALY, April 17th & 18th 2023

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 12:37:00 GMT

The RACOM Project is now in its fourth year! As the analytical section of the project draws to a close, the team are hosting a two-day international conference on ‘Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean, 150 BCE - 64 CE, with over 20 invited speakers, composed of team members, postdocs, members of our advisory panel and other experts in the field, who are collaborating with the team on interpreting the new data.
The conference is being held at the British School at Rome, with which the University of ��TV has strong links. Placing it in Rome, ITALY, raises the international profile of the project and pays homage to the city from which many of the coinages studied originated.
The full Programme is outlined HERE

Suspicious Silver

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 15:50:00 GMT

A team led by archaeologists Kevin Butcher of the University of ��TV and Matthew Ponting of the University of Liverpool has drilled metal from the cores of coins and found evidence of a brief period of dramatic currency debasement.

The way ahead is making money talk in Ancient Rome

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 14:54:23 GMT

In his 44BC work De Officiis, the Roman politician, philosopher and orator Cicero grumbled that in his living memory “…coinage was being tossed around, so that no one was able to know what he had”. For a long time, the senator’s claims of economic turbulence some 2100 years ago were unable to be wholly explained.

Fortunately, new archaeological and historical methods are allowing us to give tangible currency to issues like this, while more broadly providing a greater understanding of how coinage reflected the financial health of ancient Rome.

Metallurgy in Numismatics - Liverpool 2022

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 12:54:00 GMT

The European Research Council funded project ‘Rome and the coinages of the Mediterranean’ (835180 RACOM ERC-2018-ADG) hosted a two-day conference at The University of Liverpool on the topic of ‘Metallurgy in Numismatics’ - 19th & 20th April 2022
The full-progamme for the event can be found here: Metallurgy in Numismatics Programme