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10 Decimae Sethlans series
| Issuer | Populonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 201 BC - 101 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Vecchi-IV#41, HN Italy#195, BMC Gr/It#26, SNG France#28, SNG Copenhagen#7 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse bears the emblems of Sethlans: a pair of tongs at left and a hammer at right, the implements of the divine smith, rendered in a schematic but bold style consistent with Etruscan bronze coinage of the period. Four pellets are disposed in the field between the tools, serving as additional value markers. The ethnic legend PVPLVNA appears below the devices in archaic Latin characters, identifying the issuing city of Populonia. |
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| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Populonia, the only Etruscan city-state known to have struck its own coinage directly from locally smelted ore, produced this bronze series at a time when its iron-smelting operations on the Campigliese coast and from Elba's deposits gave it both the raw material and the economic motive to mint independently. The city was already in Roman-allied decline by the second century, and bronze issues of this weight class likely circulated in a shrinking regional economy rather than any broader Mediterranean trade network.
Sethlans was the Etruscan equivalent of Hephaestus — the divine smith — an entirely appropriate patron deity for a mint whose wealth came from metalworking.