Silver 1 As Silenus series: simple face

Populonia, on the Etruscan coast north of Piombasa, was the only Etruscan city known to have struck its own coinage directly from locally smelted ore — iron from Elba crossed the channel to the mainland smelters, and the silver almost certainly came through the same commercial networks that made the city wealthy. The As denomination in this series was the smallest practical unit, struck at a weight already reduced from earlier Populonian standards, reflecting incremental monetary pressure during a period when Rome was systematically absorbing Etruscan political autonomy.