Dear Anthony and Board,
Not dumb at all. And, although you have not interpreted
Stannard's research completely correct, I think you are grasping the basic idea already. Bravo! The background information on the coins given in
his catalog is very condensed, because that was not the goal of the paper. The
catalog was, which in 2007, was the culmination of many years of research. Before and since then,
Stannard has published many papers on the Central
Italian puzzle/drama that dive far deeper into the purpose and historical context of the coins (i.e. the whens, whys, and hows). So you have a lot more reading to do!
https://warwick.academia.edu/CliveStannardSimply put (as I understand the situation), "west-central
Italy suffered from an acute insufficiency of small change, from the mid second century BC to the Principate." The response of the affected people was very much like during similar episodes of coin shortages in history---mint your own coins! But another solution was the importation of bronze coinage from other places, including
Hispania Baetica, from which the pseudomints of Central
Italy derived some of their minting inspiration (or lack thereof). It really is a fascinating topic, with a very exotic blend of numismatic iconography!
Hope this helps and while I do truly commend your curiosity, I must also warn you that if you fall down the hole, you may not be able to get back out!
Best regards,
Mark Fox
Michigan