‡ Italy, Etruria, Populonia, 20 asses, 3rd century BC, Χ:Χ, gorgoneion with protruding tongue wearing headband, rev., no type, 8.61g (Vecchi 58.118, O33, this piece; Vecchi, SNR 69 (1990) 55, this obverse die; SNG Ashmolean 5, same obverse die), light toning, extremely fine, perfectly centred and an exceptional example, one of the finest known Provenance: Münzen und Medaillen 75, 4 December 1989, lot 5 (enlarged pl. 18); European Connoisseur collection (formed before 2002).Note: The chronology of Etruscan coins has long been beset by a scholarly divide: whether to embrace artistic style or metrology. The ubiquitous gorgoneion is a case in point; is it fifth century BC, or fully archaistic? Traditionalists have long contended the former, but the metrological evidence dating it to the end of the third century would seem conclusive. Hoard evidence remains scant, but if the excavation discovery of a gorgoneion of 10 asses, ‘in a level dated to the third quarter of the fifth century’ is accurate, then the traditionalists’ arguments will have gained some slight traction (see Haynes, Etruscan Civilization, p. 265 & Vecchi SNR 67, p. 57n).

Estimate: GBP 7000-10000