This is an extremely important piece, both for my collection and for Roman numismatics as a whole. Society's inability to discuss these types in a mature and open manner has undoubtedly hampered the study of the entire series of Roman lead. Considering the nature of this piece, I humbly request that ONLY SERIOUS NUMISMATIC REPLIES BE POSTED. ROME PB Tessera (16mm, 2.92 g, 12 h)Horse standing right; C above Erect phallus; A V flanking Rostovtsev - Rostovtsev1 gathers into one group all tesserae depicting the phallus, various iterations of the word Amor, and the extremely rare pieces depicting sexual acts. He assumes that these pieces were entrance tickets to the Lupanaria, ancient brothels. This association has caused many scholars to refuse to accept tesserae as currency, as they feel that such crude themes would never have been depicted on currency. Thornton2, however, convincingly argues that, as Mercury is sometimes depicted as a herm, a statuary type consisting of a bust set on a square pedestal adorned with only genitalia, the phallus is in fact an emblem of the god in his guise as a fertility deity. 1. Rostovtzev, Mikhail. 1905. Römische Bleitesserae. Ed. C.F. Lehmann and E Kornemann. Beiträge z. Liepzig: Theodor Weicher. 2. Thornton, M. K. 1980. “The Roman Lead Tesserae : Observations on Two Historical Problems Author.” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 29 3: 341-3
I know there was a lot of syncretism in Roman religion, but I wasn't aware that Mercury ever took on the aspect of a fertility god. His depiction on statuary adorned by genitalia would certainly highlight that aspect, but does it necessarily follow that a phallus on a coin should be interpreted as his emblem? Why specifically Mercury? There were a number of gods associated with male fertility: Liber and Mars come to mind, not to mention Fascinus, the embodiment of the divine phallus.
I believe it is possible that the phallus could have been used to symbolize any one of he Roman gods associated with fertility. And since Fascinus may be the oldest of all Roman gods, why not his symbol?
Interesting piece. Well played Ardi. I have nothing numismatic to add as I know less than nothing about Tessera.
I am guessing that you have to be very careful when handling these? I find a lot of old lead when metal detecting and I always wear gloves due to the toxicity. I have also found similar pieces which I thought were lead seals...I may have to fetch them out of my garage to take a closer look.
I doubt it's any more dangerous than handling fishing weights. I've held my tesserae a number of times and I'm still kicking. I pretty much leave them in the flips though - they seem quite fragile. I think there's more danger to the coin than the human.
I guess I would ask similar, why is the reverse symbol on this assumed to be a representation of Mercury specifically? I have seen pendants with that depiction, are those pendants also representations of Mercury? Maybe they are, I am just asking. I know phallus' were powerful and commonly used symbols in Rome. The walls of Pompeii were decorated with them, sometimes in unflattering ways also of course.
I normally avoid arguments based on types when dealing with the tesserae, as there are simply too many of them, and just a type can be found to support virtually any view. However, it is called for in this case. Thornton also points out that many of the phalli are paired with depictions of Mercury or his attributes (the caduceus, the money-bag, the rooster). Considering that there is an overwhelming preponderance of tesserae of Mercury and a complete dearth of any but the most popular gods, it would be folly to introduce an old, uncommon deity when a syncretic god readily available. And in case anyone doubted that Mercury was syncretized with Priapus:
