Lot 3771

Description

Zeugitania, Carthage, Coinage of Hannibal, (c.216-211 B.C.), electrum three eights shekel or gold three quarter Phoenician drachm, (2.75 g), obv. janiform head of pseudo-quadrigatus type of female heads with corn wreath, rev. Jupiter with thunderbolt and sceptre standing in a galloping quadriga to right driven by Nike, below horses a rectangular base, (cf.S.6487, Jenkins Group XVI cf.487-493 [p.121, Pl.24], SNG Munich 1760, BMC 145-149 [Roman Republic], Robinson, Second pl.V,3 (Capua), SNG Cop. 357, SNG ANS 146 (Capua), HN Italy 2013). Good very fine and very scarce.

An issue made by Hannibal, this coinage was previously attributed to Capua in Campania, but has been conclusively reattributed to the Carthaginians in Bruttium under Hannibal (see M.H. Crawford, "Provenances, Attributions, and Chronology of Some Early Italian Coinages," CH IX (2002), p. 274, and HN Italy). While it is likely that this issue was minted in Bruttium by the Carthaginians, there is a possibility that these coins were struck in Carthage and transported to South Italy for Hannibal's use (see G.K. Jenkins, Studi per Laura Breglia, Parte I, Generalia-Numismatica Greca. Bollettino di Numismatica, Supplemento al No. 4. [Rome, 1987], pp. 223-4).