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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 2826082, member: 76194&quot;]Here is a news article relevant to some of the recent discussions raised in the featured thread by [USER=83845]@Curtisimo[/USER] .</p><p><br /></p><p>Apparently a study demonstrated that the quality of silver in Roman coins went up around 209 BCE after a precipitous decline during the first part of the Second Punic War. We already knew that Roman silver coins were heavily debased during the war based on some of the pictures of coins from this period that some members posted, and that quality improved sometime around 209 BCE as things started to go better for Rome (and this ties up nicely with the birth of the denarius).</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the interesting bit is that chemical signature analysis of Roman coins of this period see a large shift around 209 BCE in the origin source for Roman silver. Prior to 209 BCE the bulk of silver in Roman coinage seemed to be of Aegean origin, while coins minted in 209 BCE and afterwards seem to be almost exclusively from silver of Spanish origin.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4788496/Ancient-Roman-coins-evidence-Hannibal-s-defeat.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4788496/Ancient-Roman-coins-evidence-Hannibal-s-defeat.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4788496/Ancient-Roman-coins-evidence-Hannibal-s-defeat.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Frankly, this discovery ties in nicely with the historical records for this time period. As some of you in this forum may know, Scipio Africanus received orders in 210 BCE to set out for Iberia with several legions, and he arived in Spain in 209 BCE and promptly captured Cartago Nova, the defacto capital of Carthagenian power in Iberia.&nbsp; And here we have scientific analysis finally colaborating what the ancient historial sources say, as coins from 209 BCE and onwards were almost exclusively struck from Iberian silver sources.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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