Third Known

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 46. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $3100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Lilybaion (as ‘Cape of Melkart’). Punic issues. Circa 330-305 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.93 g, 11h). Head of Persephone left, wearing barley grain wreath, triple-pendant earring, and necklace; [two dolphins to left], W to right / Horse standing right before palm tree; below, Punic ’ayin and gimel flanking tree trunk. Jenkins, Punic 73 (O26/R55), otherwise unpublished. Near EF, minor die wear on obverse. Extremely rare issue, perhaps the third known.

From the W.B. and R.E. Montgomery Collection.

Jenkins cites two specimens, one in the Thorwaldsen museum in Copenhagen and another in a private collection. On this specimen, the Punic letter on the obverse is clearly visible, but it was not noted by Jenkins although it is slightly visible on the Thorwaldsen coin (see Jenkins pl. 21, 73).