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1/2 As Cantharus series

Issuer Uncertain city of Central Italy
Year 301 BC - 201 BC
Type Standard circulation coin
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Obverse description Bust of Menrva (Etruscan equivalent of Minerva) facing left, wearing a crested Corinthian helmet with the cheekpieces raised. The hair falls in wavy locks beneath the helmet rim, rendered in the archaic Central Italian style characteristic of heavy cast bronze coinage. The portrait fills much of the flan, with the helmet crest extending toward the upper field.
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Edge Plain
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Additional information

The heavy cast bronzes of central Italy from this period exist in a numismatic grey zone — their issuing authorities remain unresolved, and the cantharus series is no exception. Attribution debates have shuffled these pieces between Umbrian, Etruscan, and Latin candidates for over a century without consensus. At 145 grams, this falls within the expected range for an aes grave half-as on the heavy Oscan-influenced standard, before Rome's progressive reduction of the libral system rendered such weights obsolete by the late third century.

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