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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ardatirion, post: 1435797, member: 9204&quot;]That specimen, which was in a Harlan Berk buy or bid sale a few years back, is grossly, heavily tooled - to the point that I&#039;m not sure I can identify the original dies. In any case, this is an example of the erotic tesserae (or spintriae), private tokens issued for an unknown purpose. Now-defunct theories of their use include that they were entrance tickets to the Colosseum or that they were brothel tokens. The numismatic and archaeological records support neither theory. </p><p><br /></p><p>They are related, by die links, to the Imperial portrait series of numeric tesserae:</p><p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/18271/Augustus_tessera.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><b>ROME. Augustus</b>. 27 BC-14 AD</p> <p style="text-align: center">Æ Tessera (21mm, 4.24 g)</p> <p style="text-align: center">Struck mid 1st century AD</p> <p style="text-align: center">Laureate head right, FEL below</p> <p style="text-align: center">V in dotted circle, all within wreath</p> <p style="text-align: center">Cf. Buttrey 5 (reverse numeral)</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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