I am working on an article for the next
Koinon on holed coins - have been working on it off and on for a year now. Fascinating
area. There are many different uses that they were put to, but only a few uses that are common.
There was a coin found with many holes like
Victor's that was attached to
pottery fragment and was almost certainly used as a sieve - likely as a wine sieve as most ancient wine was heavy on the lees. However, another option for
Victor's coin is that the
Christian Chi-Rho symbol was intentionally defaced.
There are other extremely
rare uses too, like a
sestertius used as a sword pommel or a
denarius riveted to a plate from a
lorica segmental armour.
There were also ideas put forth in numismatic literature for which there is no evidence or proof - coins were almost certainly never used to make armour, they simply make no sense as
scales (
lorica squamata) and there is no evidence of coins being nailed to
military standards (despite that being the description of a lot I once acquired long ago).
Most uses were much more mundane - jewellery or toys.
Roman grave excavations have revealed that the most common use was as
cheap jewellery, often on small necklaces or bracelets for infants and children where they were strung along with things like beads, shells, animal teeth, etc.
SC