Reduced Uncia

The Brettii — a Samnite-related people of Bruttium in the toe of Italy — struck their own coinage during the Second Punic War largely because they had allied with Hannibal after his victories at Trebbia and Lake Trasimene. This series dates to the period when Roman counter-pressure was intensifying and Carthaginian support was thinning, leaving the Brettii increasingly exposed. The "reduced" designation reflects a deliberate weight reduction from the earlier full uncia standard, a practical response to the economic strain of sustaining a war footing against Rome's grinding reconquest of southern Italy.