Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 2124. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $2600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ROMAN IMPERIAL and BYZANTINE. A collection of three hundred eighty-one lead pieces. A very diverse collection of lead tesserae (tokens) of the Roman period. Imperial portraits, divinities, animals, names, numerals and letter abbreviations. Lot also includes seals, with several examples of rare intact bale seals. Beyond Roman, there are several examples of Byzantine tessera and seals, including two sixth century lead Decanummi. Finally there is range of lead decorative fragments, some medieval, as well as later lead imitations of coins, including a Becker counterfeit of Plotina. A very important collection, decades in the assembling. Lot should be examined closely. Average Fair to Fine. LOT SOLD AS IS, NO RETURNS. Three hundred eighty-one (381) pieces in lot. ($1000)

From the Tony Hardy Collection

INTRO STORY

The Roman world, like the present day, used a variety of para-numismatica, unofficial pieces used in place of government issued coins. These tesserae-(from the Greek "four-sided", probably from the small cubes of stone or glass used in mosaics, and later used as the term for a gaming piece), could be used as small denomination general-use coins, tickets and passes, receipts and security controls, and gambling or gaming tokens. They were produced in lead and tin, as well as other materials such as bronze, iron, glass, bone, ivory and probably leather. M.I. Rostovtsev, in his 1903 work Tesserarum urbis Romae et suburbi plumbearum sylloge catalogued several thousand varieties of lead tesserae alone, found in the environs of Rome, and hundreds if not thousands more have been found subsequently. Despite these seeming riches, it is rare to see more than a handful of these tokens at any one time. This lot represents a unique opportunity to acquire a study collection of tesserae that would otherwise take years if not decades to assemble.