Home Coins Ancient and Medieval Etruria Populonia 1 Didrachm Beast series: facing right

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1 Didrachm Beast series: facing right

Descrizione del dritto	A chimeric creature facing right, depicted with the forepart of a lion — featuring a detailed maned head with open jaws — set upon a sinuous serpentine body that coils elegantly to the left, filling the field. The design is executed in archaic Etruscan style with bold, confident engraving. The entire motif is enclosed within a beaded border. The coin is uniface, with no reverse type or inscription.
Scrittura del dritto	Accedi per vedere i dettagli
Legenda del dritto	Accedi per vedere i dettagli
Descrizione del rovescio	Accedi per vedere i dettagli
Scrittura del rovescio	Accedi per vedere i dettagli
Legenda del rovescio	Accedi per vedere i dettagli
Bordo	Plain
Zecca	Accedi per vedere i dettagli
Tiratura	Accedi per vedere i dettagli
Informazioni aggiuntive	Populonia, the only Etruscan city known to have struck its own coinage directly — rather than relying on Greek or Campanian mints — produced this didrachm at a moment when the city's iron-smelting wealth from Elba was at its height. The "Beast series" facing-right didrachms are among the earliest issues from the mint, predating the better-documented lion and gorgon types that would follow in the fifth and fourth centuries. Vecchi's classification remains the primary framework for Populonian coinage, and the tight clustering of references here — HN Italy, Sambon, SNG Firenze — reflects how intensively this scarce series has been studied relative to how few specimens survive.