Roman brothel token

This coin is believed to be a "brothel token" in circulation in London during the 1st century AD. It's currently on display at the Museum of London. From the museum:

Caroline McDonald, Museum of London Curator, said: “This is the perfect archaeological object. It’s sexy and provocative in the best sense of the word. The lot of a Roman sex slave was not a happy one and objects like this can help the Museum of London provoke debates about issues that are relevant to the modern city and its visitors. Museums should engage with these more grown-up and sometimes less comfortable topics…"

If this item is indeed a brothel token, the reverse numeral may indicate the price of the service shown on the front of the token.

"Roman brothel token discovered on Thames foreshore"

• [awjt]

  TMI alert:  That’s how I like to do it, with her on her belly and me kneeling with my legs around her thighs.

  • [Ipo]

    Isn’t she a bit old for you? 

    • [awjt]

      Cue obligatory your mom joke.

    • [lknope]

      But she’s a GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGILF.

• [Brett Myers]

  Spintria – they’re pretty interesting. They depict quite a few different specific sex acts with varying Roman numerals on the reverse, leading scholars to speculate that the different “denominations” were tokens for the service pictured. Pick your pleasure from the menu, get the proper token, trade for service. 

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spintria 

  https://www.google.com/search?q=Spintria&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=i6ghT9LqC4argweb7PjWCA&biw=1024&bih=1165&sei=paghT6P8B8Gcgwer7uzkCA 

• [Lobster]

  Anyone going to make a GTA4 joke?

• [Volt Ron]

  It’s like looking at the subliminal sexually suggestive images on the camel, on a pack of Camel’s cigarettes. The ones that had the pyramid and realistic looking camel on it. Or a burnt cookie.

• [Romeo Vitelli]

  What happens in Londinium, stays in Londinium.

• [ChicagoD]

  Baby, I know it says I do that for 10 denari, but I got rent to pay. I’m going to need 15 denari if you want that.

  Seems awkward.

  • [ChicagoD]

    Eight denari for a handy? Shit, I should have just gone to Aquae Sulis and had a GOOD time.

    http://laurentiu.elenaworld.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/1.jpg 

    • [SamSam]

      Actually, nine denari, it looks like. Damn Emperors can’t control inflation. Or tumescence. 

• [Ian Wood]

  Mine has a guy with a hammer on it.

  Think I’ll stay in tonight.

  • [Forkboy]

    Not me. I’m gonna get hammered.

• [ChicagoD]

  Also, makes it a little awkward to go grocery shopping when all of your money has a flying penis on it.

  “I just came from work . . .”

• [jerryeast]

  “This is the perfect archaeological object. It’s sexy and provocative…”
  This comment by the curator typifies the “mythbusters” approach to history, Does all of science and history now have to be presented in this sort of dumbed down fashion? I guess so…

  • [Lobster]

    Are you suggesting a coin depicting a sex act was not created to be sexy and provocative, that it doesn’t remain at least somewhat provocative, or that the culture of the “average” Roman is not as important as the culture of the scholarly Roman?

  • [adonai]

    Oblig: http://xkcd.com/397/

    • [Marktech]

      Heh. In the context of the OP, oblig: http://xkcd.com/708/

• [Marktech]

  This was covered by Prof. Mary Beard in her blog in the Times Literary supplement not long ago.  The res, so to speak:

  Almost certainly these were tokens whose main function was the numeral, and the sex scene on the back was ‘decoration”… More likely, if you ask me (and as the curator at the Museum of London concedes it might be so), is that it is a gaming token, for one of the many Roman board games… whose rules and customs were anyway shot through with sex (the best throw of the Roman dice was called a “Venus throw”). This belonged, in other words, on a board in a Roman bar, not in a brothel.

  • [DevinC]

    This sounds more likely.  The brothel token explanation strikes me as somewhat strained: what need is there specifically for minted tokens that currency doesn’t already fill?  Why would a customer need to walk into the lobby, buy a token, and spend that token less than a hundred feet away?

• [Rock Hardwood]

  So, who’s the lucky lady that gets to occupy the vending machine that accepts these tokens?

• [taras]

  I stared at this for ages thinking it was a cookie.

• [Shibi_SF]

  Wash your hands after handling these tokens – you have no idea where these things have been!

• [Mister]

  1)  were these coins printed in ass fat?
  2)  i cant tell if this is missionary or doggystyle
  3)  when in Rome! 

  ok im done

• [allium]

  A clear example of when charismatic meets exonumia.

• [creativehumanoid]

  They may want to have that green oozing sore looked at. Could be something communicable.