5 Asses Wheel / Anchor

Aes grave — heavy cast bronze — was already an anachronism by the time this piece left its mold. Rome had introduced struck silver coinage by the late 260s BC, yet certain Etruscan centers persisted with the archaic casting tradition well into the Second Punic War period. Whether this reflects conservatism, local economic insularity, or a deliberate rejection of Roman monetary norms is still debated. The issuing mint remains unattributed with certainty; Volterra and Populonia have both been proposed, with neither claim definitively settled in the literature.

At nearly 700 grams, this is a denomination meant for accounting more than pocket change.