100 Centesimae Incuse series: hippocamp

Populonia, the only Etruscan city known to have struck its own coinage directly from locally smelted iron-ore slag, produced this heavy bronze series during a period of acute military pressure — the Second Punic War placed enormous logistical demands on allied and semi-independent Italian communities alike. The hippocamp series belongs to the final, heaviest phase of Populonian bronze production before the denomination structure collapsed under Roman monetary consolidation.

At over 36 grams, this piece represents the unreduced standard. The incuse technique, recessing the type into the flan rather than raising it, is a hallmark of archaic Etruscan coinage practice surviving well past its Mediterranean fashion.