Shipping tessarae from Ostia

In March 2000 the catalogue for CNG sale 53 arrived. Lots 1434 and 1435 were two curious, small, uniface square AE pieces with a galley/rowing boat with two occupants depicted on one side with the legend MPV above. They were identified as 1^st century tesserae and, as chance would have it, around the same time I came the temporary custodian of another example of the same type. I quickly sold it on but was left with a feeling more than a little regret. It is a coincidence that the Roman small rowed vessel probably depicted on the tokens is called a tesseraria(e) and is not linked to the name used for a Roman token. 

The feeling of regret was compounded when, on opening the 2015 Numismatic Chronicle, I came across a paper by Clive Stannard’s on the “Shipping tesserae of Ostia and Minturnae”. In there he brings together a corpus of all the types known to him, including the specimen I sold, plus the two CNG pieces. Overall he identifies 81 specimens forming twelve types, the boat type being the most prominent (32 specimens), the horse walking right the next most abundant group (23 specimens).

In 2020 I was able to acquire a shipping tessera to ease my regret, ex Italo Vecchi collection. Better still, the piece was a plated specimen from Stannard’s paper (type 1B, specimen 10.1). More than that it had also been illustrated in a paper by Ladich in Cronica Numismatica in 2008.

I’ve now picked up two further shipping tesserae:

There’s a boat type 1B, illustrated by Stannard in Numismatic Chronicle, 13.2. This piece is also illustrated by Keay, figure 29, number 501.017. The sale catalogue notes the provenance as “Romanphile” collection, aka Italo Vecchi. The cataloguer misses the Stannard plate identification.

There is also an example of Stannard's horse type 2C, specimen 10.2 in his plates. This is another “Romanophile” piece. Again the cataloguer misses the Stannard plate identification and, as with my first shipping tessera, this piece is also illustrated by Ladich.

The use of these paranumismatic items needs to be questioned. The  greatest number have been found around the the area of Ostia, the port of Rome and, given the most prominent design, are likely linked to a shipping or trade use. Stannard postulates that these items may have been some sort of tally system for the loading or off-loading of cargo from sea going vessels to alternative inland transport, either by boat or horse. Given the predominant nature of the designs encountered this may look to be the most obvious solution.

Keay suggests an alternate hypothesis, albeit with little confidence, that these may, be some sort of token for ferry use for crossing the waters in the busy port environs such as Ostia. This is also appealing given the type of craft depicted on the most abundant tesserae. 

Whatever the case the fact that these or manufactured in bronze, rather than lead or other, less substantial materials, shows that they were probably meant for re-use rather than some ephemeral purpose.

Bibliography

Keay, S, “The role played by the Portus Augusti in flows of commerce between Rome and it’s Mediterranean ports”, in Woytek, B, Infrastructure and Distribution in Ancient Economies; Proceedings of a conference held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 28-31 October 2014; 2018, pp 147-74

Ladich, M, “Sono tessere e non frizioni di follaro” Cronaca Numismatica 190, November 2008, p 58

Stannard, C, “Shipping tesserae from Ostia and Minturnae?”, NC 2015, pp 147-54

Tetartemoria of Latmos, Cilicia

In 2005 Koray Konuk, the authority on Cilician coinage, identified a new location for the production of silver coin, Latmos.

Latmos is named after the mountain it resides under, the peaks known today as the Besparmak mountains. Indeed, the geographer Strabo (63BC - 24AD) actually calls the city Heraclea under Latmos, although that is apparently a relocation approximately 1km to the west of the original Latmos sometime after being conquered by Mausollos in the 4^th century BC. During the 5^th century BC it was part of the Delian League.

Konuk initially published a corpus of five coins, in three styles, all of the same basic design. On the obverse is the portrait of a kouros, a boy, right, or occasionally left. Sometimes the head is bearded, others not, but there is no real support to Konuk's assertion of a female head. The reverse is a stylised monogram of LAT with the T being over the twin peaks of the Greek letters of lambda and alpha. It has been suggested that this arrangement is to reflect the mountain(s) adjacent the city and the letter T is actually a denomination indicator.

The coins are tiny, all known specimens being tetartemoria, measuring around 6mm in diameter and weighing around 0.15 grammes.

Since acquiring my piece, a variant of Konuk’s issue B, I have tried to record all the specimens that come onto the market and that number is still a relatively small population of 15 coins of all styles. This number does include a number of new die identities.

Konuk's original classification of issues