These bronzes were struck in the final, desperate years of Punic control over Sardinia, as Carthage — exhausted and financially broken by the First Punic War — found itself unable to pay its mercenary armies. The resulting Mercenary War, which erupted in 241 BC, cut Carthage off from Sardinian revenues entirely. Rome exploited the chaos, annexing the island in 238 BC under terms Carthage was in no position to contest.
The window for this issue is therefore not a round administrative period but a collapse — roughly three years bracketed by military mutiny on one end and Roman occupation on the other.
These bronzes were struck in the final, desperate years of Punic control over Sardinia, as Carthage — exhausted and financially broken by the First Punic War — found itself unable to pay its mercenary armies. The resulting Mercenary War, which erupted in 241 BC, cut Carthage off from Sardinian revenues entirely. Rome exploited the chaos, annexing the island in 238 BC under terms Carthage was in no position to contest.
The window for this issue is therefore not a round administrative period but a collapse — roughly three years bracketed by military mutiny on one end and Roman occupation on the other.