A Puzzling “Mule” Coin from the Parabita Hoard: a Material Characterisation G. Giovannelli (1), S. Natali (1), B. Bozzini (2), D. Manno (3), G.Micocci (3), A. Serra (3),G. Sarcinelli (4), A. Siciliano (4), R. Vitale (4) ((1) Dipartimento ICMMPM, Università di Roma "La Sapienza", Roma, Italy. (2) Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Innovazione, Università di Lecce, Lecce, Italy. (3) Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.(4) Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali, Università di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.) ABSTRACT In this research, we report on the compositional, microstructural and crystallographic properties of a lead coin which has been regarded for many years as a genuine silver coin minted in the Southern Italy in the course of the 4th century BC. The material characterisation of this object allowed detecting an ancient forging technology, not previously reported, which was meant for the silvering of lead substrates The data collected have disclosed a contemporary counterfeiting procedure based on a metal coating process onto a Pb substrate. This coating has been identified as a bi-layer with a Cu innermost and an Ag outermost visible layer. As far as the coating application technique is concerned, the gathered evidence has clearly indicated that the original appearance of this artifact cannot be explained in terms of any of the established methods for the growth of an artificially silvered coating in classical antiquity. This technology is now being explained in terms of modern, fully non destructive scientific methods. KEYWORDS Archaeometallurgy, Coin Counterfeing, Silvering. 1. INTRODUCTION In this study, a lead coin that is part of a monetary hoard unearthed in 1948 near Parabita (LE), now on display at the Taranto MNA, has been subjected to material characterisation.. This artifact (entry number 13 in the inventory list for the Parabita hoard) is catalogued as item #760 in the Fischer-Bossert monograph on the silver nomoi of Tarentum [Fischer-Bossert 99]. Rather surprisingly, the elemental composition of this coin went undetected through several examinations, until the last few years. It was not until 2003 that the EDX data collected in the course of a comprehensive research, performed at DBC of Lecce, on the silver content of coins from the Greek colonies in Southern Italy, allowed the identification of lead as the minting metal for this specimen.