Hemidrachm

The Brettii — the Bruttian confederation of Oscan-speaking peoples in the toe of Italy — began striking their own silver coinage only after breaking from Roman authority and aligning with Hannibal following Cannae in 216 BC. This hemidrachm belongs to that first, brief window of autonomous Bruttian silver production, issued while Hannibal's forces were effectively controlling southern Italy and Roman reach had temporarily collapsed.

The series is scarce precisely because that window closed fast. Roman reconquest of Bruttium was largely complete by the early second century, and the confederation was effectively dissolved as a political entity by 196 BC.