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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ardatirion, post: 1775136, member: 9204&quot;]These are all excellent questions. According to my model, most tesserae, this included, would have circulated as small-denomination coinage. I have no good archaeological evidence for tokens from the city of Rome, but leads from other areas exhibited a find spot pattern more suggestive of coinage than of tickets. </p><p><br /></p><p>Your suggestion that these could be kept as a keep sake is interesting. They undoubtedly had a small value in trade, and if a middle-class citizen caught one, they may have been more inclined to hang on to it than drop it in the till.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Who made them? I have no idea. The technical skill demonstrated in the engraving and production is vastly inferior to that of the official mint. This is undoubtedly an intentional move on behalf of the anonymous issuer to reduce production costs. I envision a number of private manufacturers of tesserae, selling tokens to both the government and private individuals, with shopkeepers ordering them to use as change, and patrons ordering them to give to their clients.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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