Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVI 26 Sep 2018
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Etruria, Populonia AR 20 Asses. Circa 300-250 BC. Facing head of Metus, hair bound with diadem; X:X below / 'poplv'. EC I, 37 (O1); HN Italy 142. 8.26g, 21mm.
Extremely Fine.
From the collection of a Swiss Etruscologist, and outside of Italy prior to December 1992.
The second silver Metus group is the most extensive of all Etruscan groups and consists of denominations similar to the first Metus group, but with value marks of exactly the double: 20, 10, 5, 2.5, 1 and possibly a half unit (series 37-111). The average weight of the 20 unit pieces clusters around 8.4 g, but enough examples weigh over 8.5 g to indicate that their theoretical intended weight may have been a stater of 8.6 grams, close to that of the Corinthian type staters current in southern Italy and Sicily in the early 3rd century.
This denomination is divided by 20 units, presumably Roman libral cast asses, dominant throughout central Italy from the 280s BC, rendering a silver unit of about 0.43g, close to the standard of Rome's earliest 10-as denarii. Although similar in weight standard, they seem only to anticipate the Roman denarius of c. 211 BC, since the chronological evidence from both the Populonia (1939) and Ponte Gini (1986) finds point to a burial date of the first half of the 3rd century BC.
Extremely Fine.
From the collection of a Swiss Etruscologist, and outside of Italy prior to December 1992.
The second silver Metus group is the most extensive of all Etruscan groups and consists of denominations similar to the first Metus group, but with value marks of exactly the double: 20, 10, 5, 2.5, 1 and possibly a half unit (series 37-111). The average weight of the 20 unit pieces clusters around 8.4 g, but enough examples weigh over 8.5 g to indicate that their theoretical intended weight may have been a stater of 8.6 grams, close to that of the Corinthian type staters current in southern Italy and Sicily in the early 3rd century.
This denomination is divided by 20 units, presumably Roman libral cast asses, dominant throughout central Italy from the 280s BC, rendering a silver unit of about 0.43g, close to the standard of Rome's earliest 10-as denarii. Although similar in weight standard, they seem only to anticipate the Roman denarius of c. 211 BC, since the chronological evidence from both the Populonia (1939) and Ponte Gini (1986) finds point to a burial date of the first half of the 3rd century BC.