Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction X 27 September 2015
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Etruria, Luca (?) AR 5 Units. Circa 325-300 BC. Laureate young male head right, Λ behind, dotted border / Blank. EC I, 4.30 (this coin): HN Italy 97; Sambon 101. 11.18g, 23mm.
Good Very Fine.
From the VCV Collection;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 29, 11 May 2005, lot 1.
Luca (Modern Lucca) was originally inhabited by a Ligurian population, 20 km inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea and located on an island in the river Auser (Serchio); its territory reached the Arno to the southeast and hence the Etruscan frontier. Numerous recent site finds of Ligurian and Etruscan material excavated by the local superintendency in the surrounding area point to an aggressive confrontation of the two cultures from the fifth century BC, probably with alternating Ligurian and Etruscan occupations. Etruscan coin finds from nearby Gattaiola near Lucca, Ponte Gini in Orentano and Bora dei Frati in Versilia, make it virtually certain that by the third century BC Luca was an Etruscan city, the remains of which probably lie beneath the subsequent Roman and medieval town.
Luca may have been an outpost of Volterrae, the principal city-state of northwest Etruria, or of Pisae, which from the end of the 6th century had become an important Etruscan centre extending its influence into Versilia and Pian di Lucca.
The hippocamp series used a highly original system with value marks CC and C. It is struck on the same weight standard as Populonia's second Gorgoneion series, but with the 10-units curiously expressed in two multiples of five, CC (5+5 = 10).
Good Very Fine.
From the VCV Collection;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 29, 11 May 2005, lot 1.
Luca (Modern Lucca) was originally inhabited by a Ligurian population, 20 km inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea and located on an island in the river Auser (Serchio); its territory reached the Arno to the southeast and hence the Etruscan frontier. Numerous recent site finds of Ligurian and Etruscan material excavated by the local superintendency in the surrounding area point to an aggressive confrontation of the two cultures from the fifth century BC, probably with alternating Ligurian and Etruscan occupations. Etruscan coin finds from nearby Gattaiola near Lucca, Ponte Gini in Orentano and Bora dei Frati in Versilia, make it virtually certain that by the third century BC Luca was an Etruscan city, the remains of which probably lie beneath the subsequent Roman and medieval town.
Luca may have been an outpost of Volterrae, the principal city-state of northwest Etruria, or of Pisae, which from the end of the 6th century had become an important Etruscan centre extending its influence into Versilia and Pian di Lucca.
The hippocamp series used a highly original system with value marks CC and C. It is struck on the same weight standard as Populonia's second Gorgoneion series, but with the 10-units curiously expressed in two multiples of five, CC (5+5 = 10).