Animus Classics Journal: Vol. 2, Issue 2

32 Rina Rossi
Boardman contributes deeply to the continued erasure of the
Etruscans and normalizes the viewing other ancient cultures through
a Greek lens in contemporary scholarship. This paper seeks to reject
Etruscan erasure and aims to understand how the Etruscans actually
functioned, and possibly innovated, in other aspects of their lives, such
as their economy.
Etruscan coinage began to develop with independent city-states
and was heavily tied to the culture and needs of the respective cities. 4
According to Catalli, “the production of coinage developed within individual
city-states” in Etruria, rather than developed as a whole civilization.
5 Since the Etruscan economy was not as heavily monetized as
other neighboring societies’ at the time, the first Etruscan coins “were
marked with limited production restricted to high values as well as a
restricted area of circulation.” 6 Minting coins at a limited production
level while restricting them to high value was similarly practiced by the
Greeks, as well as the people of Magna Graecia and Sicily. 7 However,
Catalli argues that production was based upon the needs of individual
city-states, as he notes that
This production cannot be justified by the needs of domestic or international
commerce, in comparison with the territory of each city-state. For this early
period, a few scholars have suggested that the production of coins was dictated
by a policy of acquisition and payment within gentilic groups rather than
within a governmental authority. (465)
The Etruscans appear to have used a variety of different standard
weights in their coinage, such as Asia Minor, Euboean Attic and the
Roman libra, of which the Asia Minor standard weight had the lowest
4 Catalli, “Coins and Mints”, 463.
5 Catalli, 463.
6 Catalli, 465.
7 Stazio, “Storia monetaria dell’Italia preromana,” 114.