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Gold 12 1/2 Asses Lion's head series I
| Issuer | Populonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 211 BC - 206 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Facing lion's head rendered in bold archaic style, with stylized mane depicted as radiating striated locks fanning outward from the face. The open jaws reveal a projecting tongue, and the eyes are rendered in relief. To the left of the head, the denomination mark — the numeral X with a horizontal bar (representing 12-1/2 asses) — is incused in the field. A border of large beads encircles the entire design. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | X I K (Translation: 12-1/2) |
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| Additional information |
Populonia, the only Etruscan city known to have struck its own coinage directly from locally smelted iron-ore slag wealth, produced this fractional gold issue during a period when the Second Punic War was draining Italian communities of bullion at an extraordinary rate. The Lion's Head series is among the final gold emissions from the city before its mint activity effectively ceased, likely a casualty of Rome's tightening economic grip over the peninsula's independent minting authorities.
At well under a gram, this denomination circulated in a commercial environment where fractional gold still had practical transactional utility — a situation that would not survive the decade.