Analysis of ancient Indian silver punch-marked coins by external PIXE

Tapash R Rautray; Suman S Nayak; Bipin B Tripathy; Saubhagyalaxmi Das; Manas R Das; Satya R Das; Pranab K Chattopadhyay

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2011.06.008

Analysis of ancient Indian silver punch-marked coins by external PIXE

Appl Radiat Isot. 2011 Oct;69(10):1385-9. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2011.06.008. Epub 2011 Jun 30.

Authors

Tapash R Rautray¹, Suman S Nayak, Bipin B Tripathy, Saubhagyalaxmi Das, Manas R Das, Satya R Das, Pranab K Chattopadhyay

Affiliation

¹ Department of Dental Biomaterials, School of Dentistry, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea; Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar 751005, Orissa, India. tapash.rautray@gmail.com

PMID: 21741849
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2011.06.008

Abstract

Seven silver punch-marked coins were analysed using external particle induced X-ray emission technique. The main group of elements like Ag, Cu, Au, Pb and Fe were estimated along with a number of trace/minor elements such as K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni and Rb in the analysed silver coins. Gold was found in all the coins and varied between 0.7% and 6.2% indicating the better economic condition of that civilisation.