NEW BOOK: TESSERAE

 

Announcement of a four-part study of ancient tesserae.

Besides coins and medals, numismatics includes a special group of tokens called "tesserae". A distinction was made based on their use; for example, the Romans recognized tesserae nummulariae (used to mark bags of coins), tesserae nummariae (small coins), and tesserae lusoriae (games and gambling tokens). Tesserae were usually made of lead at the request of specific individuals or merchants, for use in public buildings (theaters, arenas, brothels), or to celebrate a special event or celebration. Tesserae in copper, bronze, or silver-plated or gilded examples are rare.

With this four-part work "TESSERAE," Koen De Wolf publishes his collection of 887 pieces in the first volume. Since there was no basic work on tesserae, he studied all publications on the subject and compiled them into one single catalogue where the reader can easily check whether a particular tessera has already been published and in which study. If good photographs or engravings are available, they are depicted. Oriental tesserae are also known and included in these catalogues.

 

 

In Part II, he lists 4,771 tesserae with Latin inscriptions. Parts III and IV list the pieces without inscriptions. Part III provides an overview of 1,488 tesserae depicting gods, personifications, and mythological figures. Part IV shows 1,181 tesserae depicting animals, plants, buildings, etc.

This monumental numismatic work by Koen De Wolf will be an important tool for studying these unusual numismatic witnesses from antiquity. This study was published by the Numismatic Society of Diest (D/2026/14935/3-6) and can be downloaded for free from www.studiekring-numismatiek.be .

 

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web