Abstract

MARTINS, C. M. B.; MARTINS, J. I.  and  FERREIRA, J. A.. Analysis of Corrosion Products on a Medieval Coin from Senhora do Castelo. Corros. Prot. Mater. [online]. 2010, vol.29, n.2, pp.49-54. ISSN 0870-1164.

The medieval time in the hill of Senhora do Castelo is well studied in the detected archaeological vestiges: a church and necropolis of middles of the 12^th century. In this context, various materials have been exhumed in the same chronological age that witnessed this sacred space, but also stage of the political instability prevailing at the time. One such material is a coin of D. Afonso IX de Leão.  The corrosion products developed on the coin during the archaeological burial was studied by means of optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS), energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show the presence of cuprite, atacamite, chalcocite, silver oxide, silver sulphide and native silver, which allows deducing the importance of the environment in the deterioration of metallic artefact.

Keywords : Medieval Coin; Corrosion; Archaeological Artefacts.

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