Nomos 21

CARTHAGE, Siculo-Punic. uncertain Carthaginian military mint in Sicily. Circa 213-210 BC. Shekel (Silver, 20.5 mm, 7.06 g, 11 h). Laureate male head to left, most likely that of Melqart. Rev. Elephant walking to right; below, in exergue, Punic "A". Burnett, Enna, 114 (this coin). SNG Copenhagen 382. Rare. Boldly struck and with a powerful head of Melqart and a very tough-looking elephant. Flan cracks and marks suggestive of overstriking on an uncertain earlier coin, otherwise, extremely fine.

From the Aletheia Collection, ex Münzen und Medaillen FPL 416, October 1979, 416, Numismatic Fine Arts I, 20 March 1975, 123, Leu 31, 7 December 1966, 185 and from the Enna find of 1966.

Coins of this type were long thought to have been minted by King Jugurtha of Numidia (118-106 BC), as HN, p. 884, but their appearance in hoards that clearly dated to the Second Punic War made that attribution impossible. They were then ascribed to Punic forces in Spain, but since most existing specimens have turned up in Sicily it has been suggested that they were minted in Carthage for use by Punic troops on the island. However, since at least one of the half-shekels is known overstruck on a denarius it seems much more likely that they were struck in a mint controlled by the Carthaginians in Sicily, which was able to use contemporary early denarii as flans. The head on the obverse is probably a young Melqart, a deity always popular with soldiers – though he has been identified as Hannibal himself, while the elephant was one of Carthage’s most potent weapons in the war against Rome.