Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1087. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARTHAGE. Circa 264-241 BC. EL Trihemishekel (10.61 g, 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; MAA 30; Visona 29; SNG Copenhagen 182. Good VF, usual small flan crack, Punic graffiti in field on reverse. ($3000)

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 the 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.