The Corrosion of Archaeological Copper Alloys. The Case Study of a Coin Hoard From the Tenuta Radicicoli-del Bene, Rome.

Corrosion of archaeological objects, especially those made of copper or its alloys, is topic of many studies in different fields of science. Nevertheless, corrosion is dependent on many factors so that it is still difficult to correlate causes to effects and to understand the processes that have taken place. This study is centred on a recent archaeological finding consisting in an ordinary vase of pottery that contained 144 roman coins of the Empire Age. All coins are made of copper alloys (brass and bronze). Aim of research was to identify dominant factors affecting the corrosion processes and therefore the state of preservation of the coins. The correlation among different variables were analysed.