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Message:: [QUOTE="John Anthony, post: 1706526, member: 42773"]It's a losing proposition, for me. However, just to pick apart the various arguments, let's start with Schmitt-Korte's contention that when only two of the pieces were known, they could easily be dismissed as test pieces for bronze coins that were never struck. Do you think that's a fair assessment? Is there actually any archeological evidence, from any ancient culture, that suggests that trial pieces were struck in lead? It's not a rhetorical question - I just haven't read anything on the subject. My gut feeling is that with over 60 of these tesserae in 12 types, they were not trial pieces. You would expect at least some of the designs to have made it onto bronze coinage, but they didn't. Even the (theoretically) earlier ones of Athena/Nike devices diverge substantially from the bronze issues of the same typology.[/QUOTE]