Alexis said:

“Your suggestion reminds me of a Roman coin called the “universal brothel token” that could be used to purchase specific sexual acts throughout the Empire. I am curious if you happen to have any of those tokens in your coin collection.”

I’ve seen them for sale in coin catalogs. I do not have one in my collection and never actually seen one at a coin show or club meeting (they are very ordinary looking). I was not aware that they were negotable through out the Empire (I thought they were tokens negotable only at specific brothels). Common prostitutes working in brothels were normally young females who were born into slavery (their miserable lives were short and nasty). The only advantage a female prostitute had in the ancient world was access to contraception, e.g. silphium tea, uterine pebbles, etc. High class prostitutes such as courtesans and temple prostitutes (the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth) could actually have better lives than an ordinary married woman due to having access to contraception (women died like flies during childbirth in the ancient world). Prostitution like slavery and infanticide are ugly aspects of the ancient world that most historians prefer to ignore.