May 28, 2010: Sex coins

Well, let the blog entry tell it like it is:

This is a spintria. They were used in ancient Rome to request and pay for different services in brothels and from prostitutes on the street. Since there were a lot of foreigners coming to the city that did not speak the language and most of the prostitutes were slaves captured from other places the coins made the transactions easy and efficient. One side of these coins showed what the buyer wanted and the other showed the amount of money to be paid for the act.

Genius: if your outsiders can't ask for the act by name, just point to the coin of what you want.

And one imagines they might have names for the coins, too, just like "two bits", the coin above is the "badonkadonk".

hmm, interesting. some of those positions I can't quite tell about.; or tell apart. And -- a hand job is more expensive than a blow job?

and, I wonder how you got the coins in the first place. You go into a brothel, exchange regular (draws a blank on what Roman coins are) for these tokens? At random? or, you look at the money first, or . . . ?

Undertoad;659129 wrote:

the coin above is the "badonkadonk".

Looks more like the "reverse plowgirl"

And I'm sorry but the numbers on the back are not the price. I'm not a historian of antique sex prices but it seems pretty frigging obvious that they are menu numbers a la Chinese restaurant and not prices.

I've known quite a number of Ivy league grads and, while exceptionally highly educated, none were terribly smart.

Asking for a LXIX wouldn't really work, though.

If this didn't end up becoming an Air Force squadron patch somewhere...

ZenGum;659138 wrote:

Asking for a LXIX wouldn't really work, though.

No doubt, but clearly 13 wasn't all that unlucky.

found a pretty good discussion of them here:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2355/pay-for-play

That final coin. Last row, far right. Is...is that a sheep?

Wait a minute, is that the Playboy logo? Man, I knew Hefner was old, but.......

ZenGum;659138 wrote:

Asking for a LXIX wouldn't really work, though.

Nah, you'd probably get stuck with Windows 7.....

A vir ingredior in a ganea. ganea custodis levo lamnia lammina lamna quod asks caput capitis vel penis?

[COLOR="LemonChiffon"]Originally: A man walks into a brothel. The brothel keeper shows a coin and asks, heads or tails? Retranslated translation: A man to enter upon upon brothel. brothel guardian to raise sheet of metal and asks head or tail?[/COLOR]

Is that considered the same as a one POUND note?

Sheldonrs;659384 wrote:

Is that considered the same as a one POUND note?

:smack: