Möglicher Zweck: Neujahrsgeschenke. Siehe meine Besprechung von Woytek in Num. Chron. 2012.
Das Metal wohl Kupfer, da es sich um Asse handelt.
Aus dem US-Forvm, unter Literatur: Instead of paper offprints, I have been given the link below to a digital reproduction of my review article on Woytek's book on Trajan. The review is perhaps too long (16 pages) to be reproduced in full in a Forvm thread.
The review contains the first academic publication of several discoveries that I have already explained on Forvm, namely my own discovery that the second-cent. Roman mint regularly produced ordinary asses in addition to bronze medallions late in each year for use as New Year's gifts on 1 January, and Colin Kraay's ingenious explanation of the phenomenon of overstruck reverse types on Roman coins. I mention in my review that my discovery of New Year's asses has already been presented on Forvm!
http://RoyalNumismaticSociety.org/NC_Of ... e_Clay.pdf