Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Electronic Auction 362 28 October 2015
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Anonymous issues. 1st century AD. Æ Tessera (22mm, 3.37 g, 2h). Three Muses dancing, one playing a flute / VIIII within wreath. Staal p. 149 (this example, illustrated); Buttrey pl. 4, (O23/R19). Fine, dark gray-brown patina, some green and red, chipped. Very rare.
Ex Mark A. Staal Collection; Classical Numismatic Group XXXIII (15 March 1995), lot 1879.
For centuries, numismatists have been puzzled by a curious series of bronze tokens bearing on their reverse numerals from I to XVI. The obverse types on these tokens vary dramatically, bearing not only portraits of Augustus, Tiberius, and Livia, but also various erotic scenes, heterosexual and (possibly) homosexual, or bigas, maenads, capricorns, and other scattered mythological figures. The most prominent theories suggest that they were tickets for entrance to the theater or the games, and the numerals represented sections in the stands, or that they were brothel tokens, with the obverse representing a chosen "product" and the reverse the price. However, both of these theories seem unlikely when one considers that the two seemingly divergent themes are joined by die links to the numeral reverses.
Ex Mark A. Staal Collection; Classical Numismatic Group XXXIII (15 March 1995), lot 1879.
For centuries, numismatists have been puzzled by a curious series of bronze tokens bearing on their reverse numerals from I to XVI. The obverse types on these tokens vary dramatically, bearing not only portraits of Augustus, Tiberius, and Livia, but also various erotic scenes, heterosexual and (possibly) homosexual, or bigas, maenads, capricorns, and other scattered mythological figures. The most prominent theories suggest that they were tickets for entrance to the theater or the games, and the numerals represented sections in the stands, or that they were brothel tokens, with the obverse representing a chosen "product" and the reverse the price. However, both of these theories seem unlikely when one considers that the two seemingly divergent themes are joined by die links to the numeral reverses.