In Rome, in the second half of the 1st century AD, they made oil lamps specially designed for the New Year. They represented a victory holding a shield with a greetings formula, surrounded by modest New Year gifts : dates or date cakes, figs, pines, but also old coins. The most detailed specimen of these lamps is the one in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. The greetings formula reads : ANNV / NOVM FAV/STVM FEL/ICEM MI/HI, Annu(m) nov(u)m faustum felicem mihi: "A happy and fruitful new year to me". All other specimens I have seen have the same formula with mihi, it is self-greetings. Here are other lamps of the same kind in the British Museum of London, the Staatliche Antikensammlungen of Munich, the museum of Campobasso in Italy: Among the modest and symbolic New Year gifts are three coins who are not at all contemporaneous with the lamps. There is a Republican as with Janus : a victoriatus : and a denarius of 48 BC : These old coins were symbols: Janus for the month of January, the dextrarum junctio symbolizes concord and good will, the victory crowning a trophy is a wish of success. There is also in Berlin an engraved gem with greetings that seem addressed to the emperor. The inscription has been partially restored as: Annum novum faustum felicem Felici Imperatori, "A happy and fruitful new year to the happy Emperor!". Is the restitution accurate, or may it be discussed? Perhaps this was not the right formula, it's a job for epigraphists... The symbolic gifts are roughly the same as on the lamps: a laurel leaf, a fig, another fruit or little cake, and coins ! This time, they are not republican coins. There is one with the legend VICT I N, Victory advancing right holding wreath; another one : COMM ANT IIII (?), laureate bust of Commodus right; a third one that was probably a bronze coin, Minerva (?) standing left holding spear and leaning on shield in a tetrastyle temple between S C. It is clear on this squeeze: In Rome, old or more recent coins were offered as New Year gifts, not as coins but as tokens or medals. It was not their value that counted, it was the symbols on them. I wonder what symbolic charge they could find in a portrait of Commodus! Perhaps the very name Commodus, which means "pleasant".
Fascinating! Very cool that the coin types are actually identifiable. Thanks for the writeup. In the late 4th century, contorniates are also believed to have served that purpose. I'm not sure about Commodus, but Nero was still a popular figure to citizens of Rome at the time. The contorniate below has Nero on one side and Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, on the other. Hard to know what to make of that particular pairing! ROME, circa late 4th century AD AE Contorniate. 18.18g, 36mm. Rome, circa late 4th century AD. Alföldi, Kontorniat 200; Cohen VIII pg. 290, 129. O: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX, laureate head to right; engraved palm leaf before. R: Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, reclining left on couch, extending hand to serpent coiled at her knee.
