Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 597. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARTHAGE. Circa 264-241 BC. EL Trihemishekel (10.83 gm, 12h). Carthage mint. First Punic War issue. Wreathed head of Tanit left, wearing triple-pendant earring and necklace / Horse standing right on exergual line; three pellets on line, solar disc flanked by uraei above. Jenkins & Lewis, Group Xa, 412; Visona 29; SNG Copenhagen 182. Good VF. ($3000)

Ex George & Robert Stevenson Collection (Classical Numismatic Group XXVI, 11 June 1993), lot 49; Numismatic Fine Arts XII (23-24 March 1883) lot 35.

The distinctive feature of this electrum coinage is the solar disc with uraei, the sacred cobras, which appears on the reverse. Borrowed from Egyptian art with some modifications (the uraei replacing th spread falcon's wings), this symbol may be associated with a sun-god. The lower gold content (45-49%) and reduced weight standard (approximately 5% less) of this issue are reflections of the exhaustion of the Carthaginian treasury which occurred during the latter half of the First Punic War.