Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 33. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $3100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SPAIN, Carthago Nova. Carthaginian occupation. Circa 237-209 BC. AR Shekel (7.28 gm). Bare male head (Hannibal?) left / Horse right, palm tree behind. MHC 144 (same obverse die); CNH pg. 72, 74; SNG BM Spain 104. Toned, good VF. Rare. ($2000)

Following the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War in 241 BC and her subsequent victory over the insurgents in what has become known as the Libyan Revolt, the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca crossed into Spain with the intent of establishing a Carthaginian empire. Previously the only Carthaginian presence in the country had been along the coast in old Phoenician settlements, but over the next several years, Hamilcar and his successors subjugated much of the interior of Spain either by direct conquest or through diplomacy. Barcid Spain combined the necessary resources of wealth and battle-hardened man-power along with an ideal staging area that was soon to strike terror into the Romans during the invasion of Italy by Hannibal. This particular coin is conventionally believed to carry the portrait of Hannibal on the obverse.