Looking Back On Punic Carthage

Mine as well Noob?

Anoob, you know I have been studying this type.

In SNG Copenhagen, it is listed under both mainland Carthage and in Sicily.
It is not listed in Jenkin's Coins of Punic Sicily.


So

I'm resurrecting this post because of the subject, and because a few of the posters are still active here. After reading the WW2 accounts of the battle for Tunis, and picking up a bullion Tunisian 20F, I started to get interested in the ancient history. Which meant Carthage coins, especially from the period from the fall of Tyre to the Punic wars. Carthage was the center of Phoenicia from ca 330 BC to ca 260 BC.

In the current market, outstanding Carthage silver and electrum from that period sell in 5 figures and up. The coins are well made and beautiful. At the other end of the market is a huge amount of bronze, mostly Tanit and a horse head, and more rarely a palm tree and Pegasus. I'm interested in the silver shekels that fall in between these extremes, like the OP's shekel. Here's a beautiful example.

https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=53454

It seems peculiar that this shekel is 2 grams underweight. There are a lot of coins like this. Some dealers call them fractional shekels, 3/4 or 2/3, but is this correct? I wonder whether they are full shekels that have been clipped or shaved. When I compare the example coin with full weight coins, the portrait and horse are well centered and preserved but the fields appear to be reduced significantly. On some of the light shekels there is significant corrosion, but not on this example. Carthage produced fractional silver shekels, especially 1/4, but these came later than 260 BC.

From what I've read much of the early Carthage silver was coined in Sicily. Carthage was at its peak before the Punic Wars and it's not surprising that the Romans would take everything of value, leaving us a lot of inexpensive worn and corroded bronze coins. Also, the later Carthage coinage became more and more debased, with shekels made of billon and bronze. Much of the Carthage silver that survives from the later period was coined in Spain. In this period the Tyrian shekel was highly valued (especially in Israel, for Temple offerings) because of its silver, but by that point Tyre was no longer Phoenician.

Here's a 14mm bronze Carthage coin with Pegasus and a date palm. Probably Sicily mint 350-300 BC in NGC Choice XF. Very dark but sharply struck with minimal corrosion.