Forgery on the Nile: Counterfeiting copper coins in ancient Egypt
By Barbara Lichoka
Academia: The Magazine of the Polish Academy of Sciences, No.4:12 (2006)
Introduction: Ancient counterfeiters did not just copy coins of high denominations, made of gold and silver, but also forged “pennies,” i.e. low-value coins made of bronze, on a large scale. How were such imitations produced in late Roman Egypt, and did such forgers get away scot-free?
Forgery has a long history stretching back to ancient times. Ancient counterfeiters would prepare their own dies to mint coins, or cast copies using clay moulds they had prepared themselves. Sometimes they even used dies taken from an official mint. In lieu of the correct metal alloy, they would employ an alloy bearing a higher content of a much less valuable metal, such as cheap lead, which had added benefits in terms of its malleability and relatively low melting temperature.
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