Y'all, it's just a cool thing, and a status symbol.

You're really going to tell me that a species that has/had things like decorative paper weights, necklaces, rings, statues, fidget spinners, funko pop figures, and little tiny versions of buildings you flew 8 hours to see for sale near the actual building isn't going to be the same one that in ancient times, was all over a little bronze thing that looks objectively cool once some metal worker figures out how to make one?

It's like none of you have ever met a human before. It doesn't have to do anything. That's the point.

Biblically accurate coins.

Mfw

The knitting helper?

These are candle holders for when you want to send light in all directions by using candles of various widths. All knowledge of them evaporated because all the users died in mysterious fires.

Those look like objects I would find in Skyrim

An ancient d12!

"That is very unlike a coin. You're terrible at this."

It appears as an Easter egg in Luthen Rael's antique shop in Andor.

My preferred theory is that it identifies the bearer as belonging to a group something like a smithies guild.

If there was a practical function someone would have figured it out. It's a lame candle holder, coin counter, and glove knitting template. It's function is symbolic.

It was hard to make, and the materials were costly.

It has specific features that can be described like "it has 12 flat faces with holes" but would be difficult to construct if you had never seen one.

They have often been found with caches of coins, but often found alone as though forgotten or discarded. They had value to some people but they were not treasure.

Grok said it's a weapon, so we can eliminate that one.

In 1000 years people will find a land fill with fidget spinners and wonder the same.

Roman Dodecahedrons - my favored theory was that they were used to make wool gloves. Indeed, when I looked into it, someone had done this. AFAIK, cool as they are, and as many of them as have been found, no one really knows what purpose they served.

The Roman Plumbus.