Mondo Knows Facts
Coins give archaeologists a firm date for a layer
A ruler's portrait and mint marks tie a deposit to a short span of years Coins carry the name of the issuing authority, and often a mint and a date, which makes them unusually precise finds. A coin sealed in a floor gives a date after which the layer must have formed. Hoards also record trade links, since coins travel far from where they were struck. It sits in Mondo's history collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
Carbon dating gave archaeology an absolute clockLiving things absorb a radioactive isotope that decays at a known rate after deathTree rings can date timber to the exact yearDendrochronology matches growth patterns to build calendars stretching back millenniaMilled coin edges were introduced to prevent precious metal clippingIsaac Newton introduced reeded coin perimeters to expose illegal metal shavingCoins are struck under pressure rather than castA hardened die punches the design into a blank disc in one heavy blowOral history recorded voices missing from the papersInterviews from the 1940s onward captured lives that left no written traceArchives hold what clerks chose to keepTax rolls and parish registers survive far better than private letters
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Tags: coins, numismatics, dating
Coins give archaeologists a firm date for a layer: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- A ruler's portrait and mint marks tie a deposit to a short span of years. The figure is taken from British Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a history fact?
- Yes. It sits on the History shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.