Hannibal in Bruttium

Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 58. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Carthaginian occupation. Circa 216-211 BC. EL 3/8 Shekel (2.81 g, 12h). Janiform female heads, each wearing grain ear wreath / Zeus, holding thunderbolt in right hand, scepter in left, standing in quadriga right, driven by Nike, who stands beside him, holding reins. Robinson, Second pl. V, 3 (Capua); Jenkins & Lewis 487 (Capua); SNG ANS 146 (Capua); HN Italy 2013; SNG Copenhagen 357. EF, light reddish toning. Among the finest of this difficult issue.

This coinage, previously attributed to Capua in Campania, 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).