The main family of phytochemical compounds derived from naturally synthesised secondary metabolites are alkaloids, terpenoids and phenolics. Recently, these compounds known also as novel chemical entities (NCE) have been used as drug precursors or templates for synthetic moieties. Also, their potential for pharmacological applications has been as well extensively investigated. However, in recent years, a serious problem worldwide has become the use of illegal drugs, where to potential of some secondary metabolites to act as bio-or a psychoactive component is often refined. Considering that, forensic analysis of secondary metabolites from plants is of the utmost importance. Moreover, great effort has been given to developing testing strategies capable of identifying and quantifying secondary metabolites from various precursors over the past few years. Chromatography is a powerful instrumental technique in the analyses of selected NCE and seems entirely to fulfil the requirements of various laboratories all over the world.

The potential of forensic expertise in the analysis of soil samples has been recognized for a century now, but over the last 20 years, these types of evidence have been much more widely used both as an investigative tool and as evidence in court. Forensic Chemistry is at the crossroads of science with the law, being a discipline apart from its applicability to the judiciary. Samples are obtained from various objects and often contain only very small amounts of chemicals. Most of the time, the sample harvested on the spot is no longer sampled, but it is actually the sample to be analyzed. This is also the condition of aggregation of the sample, the homogeneity of the sample/matrix or the compounds sought. Sometimes, however, even the evidence can be considered chemically homogeneous, and then representative samples (paints, textiles, plastics, etc.) can be sampled. The rest of the materials are heterogeneous (soil, building materials, fire residues, etc.). The extremely rapid evolution of science in recent years has resulted in the development of new, powerful and performing technologies. This evolution and the refinement of analytical tools make it possible at present to perform forensic investigations at the smallest scale of dimensions, with greater sensitivity and with great differentiation intervals. At the same time it is possible to discover unpredictable or previously inaccessible samples.

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The present work highlights the results of optical and electronic microscopy analyses performed on fifteen selected outdated 20th century Romanian coins. The obtained results brought significant contributions in establishing specific archaeometric characteristics of corrosion coins products generated within the in-use and demonetization periods, under the action of both natural and anthropogenic factors. The work was mainly aimed in identifying the nature of the alloy and of the raw material used during coins minting, with specific emphasize on their resistance toward the action of various natural and anthropogenic factors. Emphasize is also given to the manufacturing techniques, edition characteristics and the in-use-interval. Performed elemental chemical analysis clearly showed that major elements abundances are highly correlated with coins origin area and their minting period.

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