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| Issuer | Melita (Sicily) |
|---|---|
| Year | 218 BC - 175 BC |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Draped and veiled bust of a female deity facing right, generally identified as Isis or a local Punic goddess, rendered in a Hellenistic style. The veil is drawn closely over the hair and falls behind the neck, with striated detailing visible on the drapery at the truncation. The portrait is set within a plain field with a dotted border visible along the coin's periphery. The facial features are rendered with moderate relief, characteristic of Sicilian-Punic bronze coinage of the period. No legend or inscription appears on this side. |
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| Reverse lettering | 𐤍𐤍 |
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| Additional information |
Melita — modern Malta — occupied an uncomfortable strategic position during the Second Punic War. When Rome wrested the island from Carthage in 218 BC, the local bronze coinage continued largely uninterrupted, a pragmatic acknowledgment that the island's Semitic-speaking population and its commercial networks were more useful intact than disrupted. This issue falls squarely within that transitional window, struck by a community that had spent centuries under Phoenician cultural influence while now operating under Roman hegemony.
The breadth of references this type has accumulated — CNS, SNG Copenhagen, de Luynes, Weber — reflects sustained collector interest since the 19th century, though Maltese bronzes remain modestly priced relative to their historical weight.