A relic from the ancient theater

I have yet to see someone convincingly argue that tesserae served as tickets. In fact, whenever new lead coinages are published, the authors carefully evaluate the pieces and build a convincing argument for their use, and then illogically backtrack and say they were probably tickets, for no conceivable reason. The tickets hypothesis persists from sheer momentum.

Why would someone go through the expense of having dies engraved and coins struck, even in such a cheap metal, for mere tokens? A crudely stamped piece of lead (or papyrus or ceramics) would be just as effective. Furthermore, I would expect some form of validation once the tickets were redeemed. Think of how a train conductor flourishes his hole punch. I do have one example that I think could have functioned this way:

IONIA, Ephesos
PB Tessera (15mm, 2.66 g)
Deeply punched cross shape with two additional annular punches
Blank
Gülbay & Kireç 153 (lacking the two annular punches)
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I noticed you did not include dates with your tessera. Any idea? You've got me interested now!

 

For the ticket scenario, I was thinking more of reusable tickets than the paper ones of today. People could buy them at any time, and show up at the door and drop them into a bucket to allow admission. It would not guarantee a seat, but would prove you paid and allow you in if room.

Maybe I am thinking too much like an accountant, but you wouldn't want the people at the door accepting money for fear of fraud, and you wouldn't want too cheap a ticket made due to fear of they being way too easy to counterfeit. Look at all of the anti-counterfeiting measures that go into a Superbowl ticket. Well to me the coliseum would need similar security.

So, in that way, the ticket conjecture makes sense to me. Does it mean its true? Absolutely not, and I agree that without proff should not be accepted blindly.

 

1st-3rd century AD. I don't include it because it would be the same for every piece and would just get repetitive. The earliest examples are from Julio Claudian Rome, but I believe the bulk of provincial specimens date from after the Antonine period. Production likely petered out once the value of the antoninianus dropped enough to make the lower denominations impractical, probably by the time of Aurelian. We know that they were still circulating in Athens when the city was sacked in 263.

 

Wow people, I think we're going a bit over the line here.

Don't forget about the mosquitos.