I just caught part of a program on the Discovery Channel, hosted by Terry Jones of Monty Python, about the history of sex. In it, they briefly discussed “Roman brothel tokens.” These ancient metal coins depict various sexual acts or positions on one side, and have Roman numerals stamped on the obverse.
Allegedly, for many years, no one knew what they were. Then, someone postulated that the coins were intended to be exchanged for sex in brothels. The idea was that lustful Roman soldiers in far-flung corners of the empire might have difficulty expressing their specific desires in the local dialect, and the depictions would overcome the problem. Still, no one could figure out the meaning of the roman numerals on the backs of the coins. The story goes that an enterprising modern researcher investigated the price of various sex acts in current-day brothels, and found an correlation between the modern costs of the depicted acts and the roman numerals on the tokens. Mystery solved!
This all sounded very interesting. So I tried to find out more about it on the internet. I found almost nothing, except something vague about the modern-brothel-cost research having been done in Warsaw, and a claim that all of these coins are modern forgeries, and their existence in the ancient world is a myth. So what’s the Straight Dope?
Why bother to mint tokens when the government is already minting its own coins?
The most likely answer is that it prevented skimming by the prostitutes. Instead of brothel tokens, a more common procedure has been the use of towels. The customer is issued a towel when he pays his entrance fee at the door, ostensibly to put on the bed to prevent stains. But the woman would then redeem the towel to the house for her proof of commission. There’s even a story about a fire in a New Orleans brothel where the butler leapt from the second storey with an armful of towels, at which the madam exclaimed in relief “thank God - he saved the books!”
If the transaction were strictly cash, the house and the women would always be in dispute over how much had actually been collected.
Will I get in trouble for replying to my own post just to revive it? Sorry, but I think this is a good question, and I’m sure somebody knows something about it.
I forwarded your question to a friend of mine who happens to be one of the leading ancient coin dealers in the US. He says, “actually the idea that the Roman’s used brothel tokens is unlikely.”
here’s one of his erotic roman coins on ebay. He has also sold gay versions of those coins. Also says they may have been ‘poker chips’.
now I have to tell you why this post tickled my fancy & motivated me to look up my old friend. You see, he’s not only a history buff, he’s also a expert (in his own way) on brothels. read on -
about 20 years ago, we were in Mr. Sullivan’s high school history class. My friend is sitting behind Heather[sup]*[/sup] who is kind of smart, but also clueless in her own way.
Mr. Sullivan: “Heather, Why did the Germans invade Finland?”
My friend thinks to himself, “1) she doesn’t know the answer, and 2) I’ll bet she doesn’t know what a ‘brothel’ is”.
So he quickly whispers in her ear, “It was because the Germans wanted their brothels”.
Heather announces: “Because the Germans wanted their brothels”
Mr. Sullivan: [pause] WHAT?!
Heather: “Um… what’s a brothel?”
thanks for reminding me of a bit of lore. That story hasn’t lost a thing over the years.
That’s called a “bump”. I haven’t been around here so long that I have a perfect sense of its appropriateness, but I get the sense that it’s tolerated in moderation. You’ll usually see it as a posting to a thread that consists purely of the word “<bump>”
[sub]*names changed to protect the clue-deprived[/sub]