The Coin Beneath the Crust: A Pilot Study of Coins from the Mediterranean Coast of Israel

We describe the application of synchrotron X-ray diffraction and neutron micro-tomography to three ancient bronze coins from the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Key questions are whether neutron tomography can contribute to the reading of features on corroded coins by allowing the corrosion crust to be stripped away in cyber-space using surface and volume rendering techniques, and to what extent this type of non-destructive measurement can inform possible conservation action. In addition, the X-ray diffraction experiments allow the main composition of the varicoloured surface corrosion to be deduced. We show that both X-ray and neutron data are of considerable help to numismatic study of the coins.