Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 172. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $2100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Carthaginian occupation. Circa 216-211 BC. EL 3/8 Shekel (2.87 g, 12h). Janiform female heads, wearing wreaths of grain / Zeus, holding thunderbolt in right hand, sceptre in left, standing in quadriga right, driven by Nike, who holds reins. Robinson, Punic p. 40 (Capua); Jenkins & Lewis 487 (Capua); SNG ANS 146 (Capua); HN Italy 2013; SNG Copenhagen 357. VF, toned, light porosity. Rare.

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, these coins may have been 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).