Causes and Level of Corrosion in Late Kushan Copper Coins from Islamabad Museum, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

The corrosion of copper objects over time can be unfair by a number of factors. One important factor is the contact with environmental components. The Islamabad Museum Islamabad keeps thousands of coins in its standby collection. Of these, 5 Late Kushan copper coins’ samples were particular for the research purpose. In observation of design, style of figures, weight examination and physical disorder, they clearly belonged to the Late Kushan leaders. The coins of this era appearance comparable same but they were issued by diverse rulers. Therefore, this lot of coins was carefully chosen for causes and level of corrosion. The morphometric structures on this group of coins, through RBS (Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry) were examined to recognize how and what kind of corrosion has occupied place. The study highlights the existence of corrosion mixtures such as malachite, azurite, and attacamite, alongside copper oxides like cuprite and tenorite, representing the environmental influence on these coins.

Keywords: Corrosion, Attacamite, Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry, Tenorite, Late Kushan, Cuprite, Islamabad Museum