1/5 Stater

Carthage began striking gold coinage in Sicily during the late fifth century BC, initially to pay mercenary armies campaigning against the Greek cities of the island. These fractional issues — produced far from Carthage itself, almost certainly at a Sicilian mint — reflect the financial machinery of prolonged military engagement rather than any civic monetary ambition. The weight standard follows a Phoenician-derived system, not the Greek one dominant in Sicily, a deliberate distinction.

The MAA 7 classification places this piece among the earliest of the Carthaginian Sicilian gold series.