I have tried to buy these a few times before, and always get Clio'ed. This one was cheap on Ebay so figure why not: Not the greatest, but got it for like $40. It will fill a space until I get a better one. Its a lead tesserae from Antinoopolis.
Yep Antinous is on my shopping list top 5! His tesserae are more affordable than his drachma and large medallions. $40 is a very reasonable price for yours. On vcoins, the same item would be offered for a few hundred dollars. I'm trying to find a nice style Antinous medallion or drachm. They're not cheap, and usually have problems in my price range (tooling, smoothing, filled corrosion pits).
Nice one @Pishpash ... Now does anybody know what these tesserae were used for? Were they really theatre tickets or are there other theories?
I only have one Tessera... Rome. Lead Tessera c. 1st cent. AD 13mm, 1.39 g, 12h Obv: Fortuna standing left, resting rudder on ground with right hand, holding cornucopia in left Rev: Large DP Ref: Rostovtsev 2307; Ruggerio 808-9 Ex: Tom Vossen collection of Roman lead objects. Ex: Gert Boersema
Congrats all!!! All are wonderful examples at affordable prices and it seems my ultimate choice when i try to fill that specific 'album hole' myself-----'coins' of Antinous are just way too pricey for me.
Its been discussed many times before, but the bottom line is that nobody knows and nobody will unless there is some written document discovered explaining them (highly unlikely). The best guess is that they are a local token, used for very specific purposes.
I hate Antinous - everyone suddenly has an interest in tesserae because they want an Antinous. I used to pay less than $10 for this type. Get off my lawn, ya darn kids! To clarify a few points for the would-be tesserae collector. These are not Alexandrian at all. They were produced in the city of Antinoöpolis, likely sometime after the death of Antinous, late 2nd-mid 3rd century, and are completely unrelated to the other Antinous coins. I think about half of my posts are explanations of what tesserae are. I should just make it my signature line. Here's some previous discussions: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ac...ag-–-an-exceptional-mythological-type.276783/ https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-relic-from-the-ancient-theater.239377/ https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-other-cities-of-roman-egypt.224384/#post-1669685
