1 Sextans Menrva series II

Populonia, the only Etruscan city-state known to have struck its own coinage directly in bronze and silver rather than relying on intermediary mints, issued this sextans during a period of acute military pressure following Rome's catastrophic defeat at Cannae in 216 BC. With Hannibal controlling much of southern Italy, coastal Etruscan cities scrambled to maintain functioning economies and, where necessary, supply allied forces. The Menrva series — Menrva being the Etruscan equivalent of Athena/Minerva — represents one of the later bronze sequences from this mint, struck with diminishing regularity as Roman consolidation of the peninsula tightened.

Populonia would be absorbed into the Roman sphere definitively by the early 2nd century BC, making issues from this final phase among the last independent Etruscan monetary output of any kind.