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25 Centesimae Incuse series: dolphin
| Issuer | Populonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 211 BC - 201 BC |
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| Currency | As (circa 475-201 BC) |
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| Reverse description | Incuse dolphin depicted in left profile, rendered in sunken relief within a deeply recessed field, a hallmark of the Populonian incuse coinage tradition. A small fish appears both above and below the dolphin, flanking the central motif symmetrically. The design is crisply executed within the incuse square, and the overall composition reflects the distinctive Etruscan aesthetic of the late series coinage of Populonia. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Populonia, the only Etruscan city known to have struck its own coinage directly from locally smelted ore, produced this bronze during the final decade of the Second Punic War — a period when Roman allied communities across the Italian peninsula were under acute pressure to fund military operations. The dolphin series bronzes are distinguished by their incuse reverse technique, a striking method more archaic than the city's own earlier silver issues and likely a deliberate local convention rather than a technical limitation.
Vecchi IV.31 is among the rarer dolphin-series denominations to survive with readable surfaces, partly because Populonian bronzes circulated hard in coastal trading contexts.