Lot 3806

Description

Carthage, second Punic War, (c.213-210 B.C.), Struck during the expedition to Sicily, circa 213-210 B.C., silver half shekel, (3.29 g), obv. laureate head of Melkart with African features (or Mago, youngest brother of Hannibal?) to left, dotted border, rev. elephant walking to right, line border, Punic "A" (aleph) below, (S.6577 [p.608], Burnett SNR 62, Enna No.116, Robinson [Essays Mattingly] No.8 (b) [p.53, Plate III], MAA -; cf.Visona 55 (shekel); Walker 29; SNG Cop.383; SNG Newham Davis 107. SNG Munich 260). Nearly extremely fine/extremely fine, flan flaw on obverse, rare.

Robinson initially attributed this coin to the Spanish mint but the discovery of examples in the Enna hoard and other Sicilian hoards (Burnett, "The Enna Hoard" SNR 62 p.11) makes it more likely that this coin was struck in Carthage for use in the Sicilian campaign of 213-210 B.C. The obverse head representation is still unresolved.