Catalog
1 Triens Turms series IV
| Issuer | Populonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 215 BC - 211 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 19.15 g |
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| Obverse description | Bare head of Turms (the Etruscan equivalent of Hermes/Mercury) facing right, rendered in a Hellenistic style with flowing wavy hair. A broad-brimmed petasus hat sits atop the head, adorned along its upper rim with a row of pellets serving as the value mark for the triens denomination. The portrait is executed with confident, lively engraving characteristic of Populonian bronze coinage of the late third century BC, with the neck truncation visible at the lower right of the field. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Populonia, the only Etruscan city known to have struck its own coinage directly in the name of the city-state rather than through a broader league or federal authority, produced this issue during the Second Punic War — a period when even Roman minting was under severe strain following the disaster at Cannae in 216 BC. The Triens, representing one-third of the As, was a workhorse denomination in central Italian monetary circulation of the period.
The Turms series takes its name from the Etruscan equivalent of Mercury, and this fourth series marks a late phase of Populonian bronze production before the city's monetary tradition effectively ceased.