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1 Semuncia Series I: Sethlans / Blank

Issuer Vetulonia
Year 217 BC - 215 BC
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Weight 5.03 g
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Obverse description Facing head of Sethlans (the Etruscan deity equated with Hephaistos/Vulcan), rendered in archaic Etruscan artistic style. The bust is presented frontally, with broad facial features and stylized hair framing the face. The ethnic inscription VETL appears in the field, referencing the issuing city of Vetulonia. The flan is irregular and slightly convex, consistent with cast or crudely hammered Etruscan bronze coinage of the late third century BC. The overall fabric is characteristic of the Etruscan bronze series produced during the Second Punic War period.
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Edge Plain
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Vetulonia was among the Etruscan cities that issued bronze coinage in the late 3rd century BC, a period when Rome's catastrophic defeat at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC destabilized the entire Italian peninsula and forced even nominally allied communities to reckon with their monetary arrangements. Whether this issue reflects Vetulonian autonomy, a practical response to bronze shortages, or some degree of Roman-adjacent monetary organization remains debated — the city's numismatic output was small and its political circumstances during the Hannibalic War imperfectly documented. The blank reverse is not damage; it is the intended design for this denomination and series.