102 RHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1771' 



From what has been observed, as well as from the thickness, high relief, and 

 extreme rudeness of the workmanship, or rather in conjunction with these, we 

 may conclude, that our as is either coeval with some of the earliest pieces, or 

 weights, ever used in Italy, or but little posterior to them. That the weight 

 here considered is to be assigned to a maritime town, the concha marina, or sea- 

 shell, irrefragably proves. He therefore attributes it to Volterra, which was the 

 most ancient city of Etruria, the seat of a lucumo, and one of the most consi- 

 derable places in Tuscany. It was also a maritime city, as we learn from Strabo, 

 being seated not far from the Vada Volaterrana, near the place where the river 

 Caecina threw itself into the Tyrrhenian sea. Mr. S. therefore reads the legend 

 on the reverse of this coin, felathebi, felateri, or felaterri; the 5th letter 

 being sometimes endued with the power of Theta, and sometimes with that of 

 Tau ; and a duplication of consonants, in writing, having been unknown to the 

 most ancient Etruscans. 



The second piece, or weight, is a stips uncialis, as appears both from the 

 weight and size of it, of the earliest date. On one side it has preserved the 

 head, or rather a full face, of the sun ; the workmanship of which is more rude 

 and barbarous than that of any other similar piece that ever fell under Mr. S.'s 

 view, and done perfectly in the most ancient Etruscan taste. The reverse had 

 originally on it the prow of a ship, which has been so totally effaced by the inju- 

 ries of time, that only a very few exceedingly faint traces of it are now to be 

 seen. The relief on the face-side is very high, as was doubtless at first that on 

 the other; but the reverse being in a manner quite smoothed, nothing there 

 remains but the vestiges of the prow of a ship, that are barely visible. However, 

 just over the prow, we may discover clearly enough a legend in Etruscan charac- 

 ters, though but very indifferently preserved. That word is apparently equiva- 

 lent to Roma, and consequently the piece itself must be deemed an uncia, or 

 stips uncialis, of Rome, though the globule, or uncial mark, has not escaped 

 the ravages of time. 



That the piece in question is an uncia of Rome, appears not only from the 

 legend on the reverse, as just observed, but likewise from another uncia of Rome, 

 with the full face of the sun on it, as here, though done in the more modern 

 Roman taste, now in his collection. We may therefore safely enough pronounce the 

 coin here described a stips uncialis of Rome, of a very remote antiquity, with the 

 Etruscan name of that capital of theworld on the reverse. The Etruscan letters were 

 doubtless the first alphabetic characters of Italy. Nay, they prevailed at Rome, 

 and in every part of Italy, till after the regifuge. And he is induced to conclude, 

 that it is at least coeval with the regifuge, which happened in the year of Rome 

 245 ; or rather, that it may be a considerable number of years anterior to that 

 event. 



