Etruscan Coins - Bronze

Bronze

The origin of Etruscan bronze coinage is to be sought in the central Italian pre-coinage aes rude ingots, or lumps and ramo secco and plain bronze bars, which circulated as currency throughout Italy from at least the 5th century BC. By the treaty of Apamaea between the Seleucid Empire and the Romans in 188 BC, the Roman libra was for practical purposes tariffed at 80 to the Attic talent of 25,8 kg, giving a libra or pound of about 325 g, subdivided into 12 unciae of about 27 g and 288 scripula of about 1,13 g. The cast round aes grave coinage of Volterra, Tarquinia, including bars, and the Chiana Valley with its associated struck unciae and semi-unciae, are all firmly dated to the 3rd century BC, including a series of oval shaped aes grave possibly from Volsini. This cast coinage seems to mirror the extensive Roman series. The date of the inception of the aes grave is estimated to be about 280 BC and to have been progressively reduced in weight from libral to semi-libral at the outbreak of the Second Punic War in 217 BC. Further reductions took place until the cast bronze gave way to struck sextantal bronze in about 214-212 BC, and the introduction of the silver 10-as denarius with its fractions, the quinarius (5-asses) and sestertius (2½-asses).

Two large struck bronze series with Populonia and Vetulonia are exactly on the Roman post-semi-libral as standard that is dated by Crawford to about 215-211 BC. The Etruscans were not frightened to experiment, as is illustrated by the case of an extraordinary struck bronze series with incuse reverses, presumably from Populonia and based on a hundred units (or centesimal system) which may correspond to the struck Roman sexantal as, theoretically of about 54 grams. An even more remarkable issue from a metrological point of view is one that I interpret as a dual-denominated decimal/uncial series, overstruck on earlier post semi-libral bronzes, while a similar, but slightly lighter issue seems tariffed /X or 11 centismae, both dateable to about 200 BC.