In the second half of the 6th century BC four South Italian Greek colonial cities – Sybaris, Croton, Metapontum and Caulonia – were minting silver-copper alloy coins, all in the incuse fabric, with the same weight standard of c. 8gm. These incuse coins were to remain in production at Croton and Metapontum for the next 100 years.Coins hoards indicate that these four cities began minting their coinage at the outset as very fine, artistic – even exquisite – objects of fine crafts-manship. Each coin was thin (1mm), broad (30mm) and of a consistently uniform weight and diameter, and each coin was struck between dies of exceptional quality. During subsequent decades the diameter of the coinage was progressively reduced.At Monash University in 1980 we conducted experiments in coin manufacturing to determine how the minters at Croton in the 6th century produced these thin, incuse coins from only a small amount (8gm) of silver alloy, how they maintained a consistent weight standard across a century of minting, and why they progressively reduced the size of their coins during this period.It is well-known that the manufacturing processes of objects made from metal alloys can be revealed by examining their crystal structures.In our experiments in manufacturing broad, thin ‘Monash coins’, we examined the crystal structures at various stages throughout the process. To do this we made coin blanks of various diameters, all made from 8gm of silver-copper alloy. These blanks were subjected to hardness tests and photographs were made of the alloy’s crystal microstructures. ‘Coins’ were then minted by striking blanks between two manufactured replica dies, and their microstructures were compared with the microstructures of a genuine Croton incuse coin fragment.This is the first time these results have been published.

中文翻译：

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制造空白和铸造硬币的实验

在公元前 6 世纪下半叶，四个南意大利希腊殖民城市——席巴里斯、巴豆、梅塔蓬图姆和考洛尼亚——正在铸造银铜合金硬币，这些硬币都是用 incuse 织物制成的，重量标准相同。8克。在接下来的 100 年里，这些因古铜币将在克罗顿和梅塔蓬图姆继续生产。 硬币囤积表明，这四个城市从一开始就开始铸造他们的硬币，这些硬币是非常精美、艺术——甚至是精美的——工艺精湛的物品。每枚硬币都很薄（1 毫米），宽（30 毫米），重量和直径一致，每枚硬币都是在质量卓越的模具之间铸造的。在随后的几十年中，硬币的直径逐渐减小。1980 年，在莫纳什大学，我们进行了硬币制造实验，以确定 6 世纪克罗顿的铸币厂如何用少量（8 克）的银合金生产这些薄薄的印加硬币，以及它们如何在一个世纪内保持一致的重量标准铸造，以及为什么他们在此期间逐渐减小硬币的尺寸。众所周知，金属合金制成的物体的制造过程可以通过检查它们的晶体结构来揭示。在我们制造宽而薄的实验中蒙纳士硬币，我们在整个过程的各个阶段检查了晶体结构。为此，我们制作了各种直径的硬币坯，全部由 8 克银铜合金制成。这些坯料进行了硬度测试，并拍摄了合金晶体微观结构的照片。