Tóth Csaba
Hungarian National Museum, Budapest

In the second half of the 1990s a long series of Hungarian coins were examined by scientific elemental analysis, partly supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund. During the project energy dispersive X-ray fluorescens method was used to determine elemental composition of gold and silver coins struck between the 11^th-15^th centuries in a fast and nonedestructive way. The analysis took place in the Institute for Chemical Technology of Technical University in Budapest and in the Isotope Laboratory of the Hungarian National Bank. Analysis happened in two - qualitative and quantitative - ways. The quantitative method can verify only the main elemental components, namely the proportion of gold, silver, copper and lead, the qualitative analysis beside the main components is able to reveal the presence of scandium, titanium, vanadium, chrome, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, technetium, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, cadmium and indium.

In a consequence of the project more than 200 silver pennies of the 11^th century, 141 specimens of gold coins of the Angevin period, 40-40 pieces of pennies struck by Louis I, the so called "Saracen" deniers and those with the depiction of St Ladislas, "Madonna" deniers of Matthias I, struck after his great monetary reform in 1467. On the other way two specimens of gold coins assigned to Stephen I, some Byzantine solidi, Celtic gold coins and gold jewels from the age of the Hungarian conquest.

The aim of the project was in one hand to ascertain the fineness of those coins; because we have any contemporary written sources about their official standard, and synchronize the results of the elemental analysis and the written sources on the other hand. Concerning the gold coins presumed to be struck in the 11^th century, we tried to use its elemental components to specify the origin of the precious metal.

The analysis yield mixed results, while new data aroused concerning the standard of the coinage of the Angevin period, we have found any decisive proofs regarding the gold coins of Stephan I or any new things about the 11^th century Hungarian coinage.