As a child in my native Lebanon, I collected ancient coins, digging Phoenician and Roman coins from olive groves near my hometown and from other locations. Several times, my parents took me to areas where archaeologists were carefully digging for artifacts. Occasionally, I would show some of my coins to one of the archaeologists and he would tell me in French or English what it was made of and how old it was. I was intrigued by the solidity of the coins, and I wanted to know more about their composition. I was told that most were alloys of copper. None had gold, but one or two may have had some silver. The coins felt heavy, and I wondered if there was lead in them.