Choice Bone Tessera

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 585. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous Tesserae. 1st-2nd centuries AD. Bone Tessera (5.39 g, 2h). Made in Alexandria. Bare head of Nero left / VII/FILOKLHC/Z in three lines across fields. Cf. Kestner-Museum, Tesseren 149-150; cf. L. Sachero, I Contorniati di Roma Imperiale, pp. 151-155. Good VF, wonderful natural color, scattered minor deposits, light cleaning marks. Very rare.

A wide variety of these tesserae are known, many found in the vicinity of Alexandria. They feature portraits (some resembling emperors from Augustus to Nero), Egyptian architectural types, and other symbols, with names inscribed on the reverse accompanied by numbers from 1 to 15 in Latin and Greek. While the prevailing modern viewpoint is that these tesserae were used for games, rather than to regulate the distribution of government largess, or as theater tickets, the evidence is not yet conclusive. For a general overview of these tesserae, see E. Alföldi-Rosenbaum, “Alexandriaca: Studies on Roman Game Counters III” in Chiron 6 (1976), pp. 205-239.