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Romano-Celtic Mask Puzzle Padlocks

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 9:00 am
by Comyn
I do not own this book and have never heard of this sort of thing before but I came across a story in atlasobscura which talks about these bronze rings from the Roman era which may have been used to "lock" pouches? or something in a similar way and could be opened with a "key ring". At first I thought "how ridiculous" to lock a pouch which could just be cut open, but then I thought maybe in a civilized society there might be a case where a courier is expected to carry a payment to someone at the end of a business day, and such a lock might serve like a wax seal to prove that the amount has not been tampered with in transit?

Either way, its an interesting article and the construction of these things seems almost too good to be true. Also, the design seems very Celtic (the heads and such) so its worth a look.

The story:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/f ... elry-money

The book on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... dbcelts-20
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