Study of Portuguese Coins Issued During the Reign of D. João with pXRF Technique and Multivariate Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/1679-0375.2025.v46.52402Keywords:
pXRF, billon alloy, silver base coinAbstract
Portable energy dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) technique was applied for the study of 113 Portuguese coins minted during the reign of D. João I (1385-1433). Multivariate analysis was also employed to obtain more information about the coin set. These coins are part of a collection that belongs to the National History Museum in Rio de Janeiro (MHN). Different Portuguese currencies were studied such as Real Branco, Real de 10 Soldos, and ½ Real Cruzado. The coins were minted with an alloy known as billon, which is made of copper and silver. The reigns of D. João I (1385-1433) and his predecessor, D. Fernando (1367-1383), had intense warlike activity. This activity affected the economy, mainly during the reign of D. João I where the legal content of silver in coins was lower (2.78% weight) in contrast, for instance, with the reign of D. Fernando (8.33% weight). It was verified that some coins have a concentration below the legal value, while an expressive number of coins did not present silver in their composition. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was able to separate one monetary value coin regarding the city that it was minted.
Downloads
References
Bugoi, R., Constantin, F., & Constantinescu, B. (2002). Archaeometrical studies on medieval silver coins at the Bucharest tandem accelerator. In T. Garvey, L. Rivkin, J. Le Duff, C. Petit-Jean-Genaz, P. Le Roux, & J. Poole (Eds.), 8th European Particle Accelerator Conference [Proceedings]. EPAC 2002, Paris, France. https://cds.cern.ch/record/492578?ln=pt
Constantinescu, B., Săşianu, A., & Bugoi, R. (2003). Adulterations in first century BC: The case of Greek silver drachmae analyzed by X-Ray methods. Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, 58(4), 759–765. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0584-8547(02)00292-6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0584-8547(02)00292-6
Cordeiro, J. N. R. M. (2021). A navegação e a particularidade da produção monetária no reinado de D. Fernando, no interregno e no reinado de D. João I [Tese de doutorado]. Universidade de Lisboa. http://hdl.handle.net/10451/54721
Felix,V. S., Pereira, M. O., Freitas, R. P., Aranha, P. J. M., Heringer, P. C. S., Anjos, M. J.,&Lopes, R. T. (2020). Analysis of silver coins from colonial Brazil by hand held XRF and micro-XRF. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 166, 109409. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969804320305558 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2020.109409
Fernandes, M. B. L. (1856). Memoria das moedas correntes em Portugal, desde o tempo dos romanos até o anno de 1856. Typographia da Academia.
Florenzano, M. B. B. (1989). Emissões monetárias do período helenístico. Rio de Janeiro.
Grieken, R. v., & Markowicz, A. (Eds.). (2001). Handbook of X-Ray Spectrometry. Marcel Dekker. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203908709
Guerra, M. F. (1995). Elemental analysis of coins and glasses. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 46(6–7), 583–588. https://doi.org/10.1016/0969-8043(95)00095-X DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0969-8043(95)00095-X
Guerra, M. F. (2000). The study of the characterisation and provenance of coins and other metalwork using XRF, PIXE and activation analysis. In D. C. Creagh & D. A. Bradley (Eds.), Radiation in Art and Archeometry (pp. 378–416). Elsevier Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044450487-6/50063-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044450487-6/50063-8
Guerra, M. F., Barrandon, J., Magro, F., & Gil, F. B. (1989). Analyse de dinheiros de la Ière dynastie du Portugal: nouvelles approches. Revue d’Archéométrie, 13, 31–41. https://doi.org/10.3406/arsci.1989.870 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/arsci.1989.870
Martins, C. M. B., & Martins, J. I. (2011). Identification of corrosion products on a medieval copper-silver coin. Protection of Metals and Physical Chemistry of Surfaces, 47(1), 128–132. https://doi.org/10.1134/S2070205110061012 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2070205110061012
Milazzo, M. (2004). Radiation applications in art and archaeometry X-Ray fluorescence applications to archaeometry: Possibility of obtaining non-destructive quantitative analyses. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 213, 683–692. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-583X(03)01686-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-583X(03)01686-0
Neiva, A. C., de Melo, H. G., Hernández, R. P. B., Rizzutto, M. A., Tabaniks, M. H., Added, N., Appoloni, C. R., Parreira, P. S., & Lima, S. C. (2005). Caracterização Espectroscópica das Ligas e dos Produtos de Corrosão de Peças Metálicas do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia da USP. Anais do 2o Congresso Latino-Americano de Restauração de Metais [Proceedings]. 2o Congresso Latino-Americano de Restauração de Metais, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. https://repositorio.mcti.gov.br/handle/mctic/5362
Oliveira, M. I. M. R. (2014). Development of nanomaterials for cultural heritage conservation: evaluation on the degradation state of antique coins by spectroscopic techniques [Dissertation Master’s degree in Chemistry, University of Lisboa]. http://hdl.handle.net/10451/12389
Parreira, P. S., Appoloni, C. R., Lobo Vieira, R. M., Scorzelli, R. B., Le Corre, L., & Guerra, M. F. (2009). Precious metal determination in ancient coins by portable ED-XRF spectroscopy with a 238Pu source. ArchéoSciences, Revue d’archéométrie, 33, 313–318. https://doi.org/10.4000/archeosciences.2396 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/archeosciences.2396
Pitarch, A., Queralt, I., & Alvarez-Perez, A. (2011). Analysis of Catalonian silver coins from the Spanish War of Independence period (1808–1814) by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 269(3), 308–312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2010.11.045 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2010.11.045
Valério, N. (1992). Periodização da História Monetária de Portugal. Estudos de Economia, 12(1), 3–18.
Wold, S., Esbensen, K., & Geladi, P. (1987). Principal component analysis. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 2(1–3), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-7439(87)80084-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-7439(87)80084-9
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Guilherme Augusto Lisboa Nogueira, Paulo Sérgio Parreira, Rosa Bernstein Scorzelli, Carlos Roberto Appoloni
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The Copyright Declaration for articles published in this journal is the author's right. Since manuscripts are published in an open access Journal, they are free to use, with their own attributions, in educational and non-commercial applications. The Journal has the right to make, in the original document, changes regarding linguistic norms, orthography, and grammar, with the purpose of ensuring the standard norms of the language and the credibility of the Journal. It will, however, respect the writing style of the authors. When necessary, conceptual changes, corrections, or suggestions will be forwarded to the authors. In such cases, the manuscript shall be subjected to a new evaluation after revision. Responsibility for the opinions expressed in the manuscripts lies entirely with the authors.
This journal is licensed with a license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.
