Circulation life is pretty important in archaeological dating and is 
often discussed in dating of hoards etc. but varies through time Try J. 
Casey and R. Reece (eds), Coins and the Archaeologist and  J. Casey, 
Understanding Ancient Coins for an introduction to issues.


paul

geoff carver wrote:
> i heard a lecture recently, in which someone mentioned a small experiment, where he tallied the dates of the coins in the pockets of his acquaintances, and i was wondering if anyone has seen reference to anything more systematic? i know philip barker makes reference to the problems of trying to date the contents of someone's pockets based on the coins he tried to use to make a phone call, but i was wondering if there might have been a more systematic study done somewhere, sometime, and not necessarily by archaeologists (banks or mints, to guage the age of coins in circulation?)
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