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Gold 50 Asses Gorgoneion series III
| Issuer | Populonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 211 BC - 206 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 15 mm |
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| Obverse description | Facing gorgoneion (Metus) depicted in high relief, rendered in archaic Etruscan style with pronounced, deeply modelled features including wide-set eyes, a broad nose, and an open mouth with protruding tongue and tusks. The head is surrounded by a beaded border and framed by flowing hair. The denomination mark appears in the lower field below the gorgoneion. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Uniface; the reverse is completely blank and unworked, exhibiting only the irregular hammered surface of the flan with incidental tool marks and natural undulations characteristic of early Etruscan gold coinage production. |
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| Additional information |
Populonia, on the Etruscan coast north of Piombino, was one of the few ancient Italian mints to strike gold coinage with any regularity, and it did so precisely because local iron-smelting wealth gave the city access to metal that most contemporary Italian communities simply lacked. The denomination — fifty asses — is enormous by any measure of the period, suggesting these were instruments of large-scale transaction rather than everyday exchange.
The dating places production squarely within the Second Punic War, when Hannibal's presence in Italy had shattered normal monetary networks and created urgent demand for high-value portable wealth.