SimonW Posted July 20 · Member Share Posted July 20 (edited) 4 hours ago, Heliodromus said: What makes it worth considering the alternative, that these were possibly custom orders, maybe even from multiple mints, is the sheer diversity of series issued for Augustus. Given that Tiberius' AE coinage is full of types glorifying Augustus, that's the one point I find rather unsurprising. 4 hours ago, Heliodromus said: 1) Those are actually two different types. The first one with a laureate head and the second one with a bare head. 4) The second piece shows a slight variation with the portrait in a circle instead of a laurel wreath like the other two. The third piece with the unusual style is in my collection. I bought it from a Spanish auction house along with some other tesserae from the same series. One of the other pieces, which I had cleaned, showed some filled areas with tooled details. The sand on this piece looks applied. I wouldn't be surprised if this piece was also tooled, hidden underneath the applied sand. So I wouldn't put too much weight on the style. 5) I believe those actually show Tiberius, not Augustus. But I agree, the style is very different, also of the reverses (see size of the letters). 7) Did you notice that the head of this type is actually radiate and laureate? I am pretty sure that there is also a "radiate head r, within circle" type. 4 hours ago, Heliodromus said: 1) The finds are all individual pieces - never a set (or partial set). It's understandable for coins to be lost individually (if not hoarded), but why would a set of game pieces be lost individually? 2) Why would a game, apparently quite popular given the number of series, and Mitreius (per the game theory) having custom sets made as presents, suddenly come into being and just as suddenly dissapear? 3) If we assume a game involving a special "AVG" piece and 16 numbered ones I-XVI, then what to make of the camel rider XIX piece? Perhaps we can interpret the Claudius pieces as not in fact related, as otherwise we need to consider it's XVIIII piece too. These are all very good questions. I don't have an answer to any of them 🙂 Edited July 20 by SimonW 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heliodromus Posted July 20 · Member Author Share Posted July 20 Thanks, Simon, for the useful comments. What a fascinating series/puzzle! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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