Second Punic War Shekel
Circa 213-210 BC

366, Lot: 400. Estimate $3000. Sold for $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARTHAGE, Second Punic War. Circa 220-205 BC. AR Shekel (19.5mm, 5.74 g, 11h). Carthage mint or Carthaginian mint in Sicily. Struck during the expedition to Sicily, circa 213-210 BC. Head of Melkart left, wearing laurel wreath / Elephant advancing right; Punic ‘A’ in exergue. MAA –; Visonà 55; cf. Walker 29 (half shekel); Burnett, Enna 114–5; SNG Copenhagen 382. VF, toned. Rare.

From Group SGF.

These coins were originally attributed to the Punic mint in Spain, but subsequent hoard evidence has established that they were struck either in Carthage or a Carthaginian mint in Sicily during the Second Punic War (see A. Walker, “Some Hoards from Sicily and a Carthaginian Issue of the Second Punic War” in Studies Mildenberg, p. 275, and note 6). Burnett (Enna) argued, based on the fixed die axes of the coins, that this issue was struck in Carthage, but for circulation in Sicily.