1 As Archaic wheel / Crescents

Cast rather than struck, this heavy bronze belongs to the aes grave tradition that preceded Rome's shift to struck coinage — a system where weight itself was the denomination, verified at every transaction. The specific attributions to an Etruscan workshop remain contested; the crescent devices have generated considerable disagreement among scholars, with some linking them to lunar cult associations in the northern Etruscan sphere and others treating them as purely workshop identifiers with no symbolic intent.

At this weight, these pieces were already becoming economically awkward by the time of issue, with Rome's monetary reforms of the mid-third century steadily eroding the political rationale for maintaining such heavy cast bronze standards.