12 1/2 Centesimae Incuse series: serpent

Populonia, the only Etruscan city known to have struck its own coinage directly from locally smelted iron-ore slag, produced this bronze issue during the final, desperate decade of the Second Punic War. The city sat on the Tyrrhenian coast opposite Elba, controlling ore traffic that made it strategically valuable to any power trying to sustain a war economy in central Italy. Whether these fractional bronzes circulated primarily within the city or moved through broader Etruscan trade networks remains debated — surviving examples are scarce enough that die studies are still incomplete.