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<p>[QUOTE="Ardatirion, post: 899749, member: 9204"]I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Roman tokens, and am working towards getting it published. These views of the spintria are sorely outdated. They cannot be brothel tokens - the primary source for this interpretation was Eckhel (1793), who based his interpretation on the numbered scenes in the <i>Lupanare</i> (brothel) in Pompeii. But the numbers on the frescoes do not correspond to the numbers, and the scenes even have different numbers on the tokens. They cannot be game tokens, either. No known Roman games use these numbers. Some have tried to interpret them as tickets for the Colosseum, with each number representing one of the vomitoria. But the numbers on the tokens and the number of vomitoria do not match either. </p><p><br /></p><p>If I recall, there is a publication coming out sometime next year that interprets the whole series as gifts given to legion commanders. First, the series of tokens with busts of Augustus were given. Then, the military men themselves parodied the official gifts with the erotic types.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here's my example of the Augustus type, to appear in the upcoming publication. It is from the earliest issue, and is the only known from this issue with the number V on the reverse.</p><p><img src="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/18271/Augustus_tessera.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>AE Roman Tessera, 1st cent. AD</p><p>4.245g, 21.2mm</p><p>laureate bead of Augustus r., FEL below</p><p>V in dotted circle surrounded by wreath</p><p>cf Buttrey 5 (not listed with V)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Ardatirion, post: 899749, member: 9204"]I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Roman tokens, and am working towards getting it published. These views of the spintria are sorely outdated. They cannot be brothel tokens - the primary source for this interpretation was Eckhel (1793), who based his interpretation on the numbered scenes in the [I]Lupanare[/I] (brothel) in Pompeii. But the numbers on the frescoes do not correspond to the numbers, and the scenes even have different numbers on the tokens. They cannot be game tokens, either. No known Roman games use these numbers. Some have tried to interpret them as tickets for the Colosseum, with each number representing one of the vomitoria. But the numbers on the tokens and the number of vomitoria do not match either. If I recall, there is a publication coming out sometime next year that interprets the whole series as gifts given to legion commanders. First, the series of tokens with busts of Augustus were given. Then, the military men themselves parodied the official gifts with the erotic types. Here's my example of the Augustus type, to appear in the upcoming publication. It is from the earliest issue, and is the only known from this issue with the number V on the reverse. [IMG]http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/18271/Augustus_tessera.jpg[/IMG] AE Roman Tessera, 1st cent. AD 4.245g, 21.2mm laureate bead of Augustus r., FEL below V in dotted circle surrounded by wreath cf Buttrey 5 (not listed with V)[/QUOTE]
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