Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Didrachm
| Issuer | Carthage |
|---|---|
| Year | 218 BC - 208 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A standing horse facing right, rendered in a static, heraldic pose with its head turned slightly upward, occupying the central field. Above the horse's back appears a solar disc or pellet surrounded by a radiate or crescent device, a recurring Punic celestial symbol. The ground line below the horse is faintly indicated, and the field is otherwise plain and devoid of inscription or legend. The bold, simplified style of the horse reflects the distinctive Carthaginian artistic tradition heavily influenced by Sicilian and North African die-cutting conventions. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
This issue falls squarely within the Second Punic War, struck while Carthaginian military finances were under extraordinary pressure. Hannibal's Italian campaign after 218 BC demanded continuous supply of silver coinage to pay mercenary troops — Iberian, Gallic, and Numidian soldiers who expected hard metal, not promises. Carthage maintained mint operations under conditions of strategic siege, and issues from this decade show accelerating die degradation consistent with high-volume emergency production.
Müller 102 is a well-documented type within a series that remains difficult to sequence precisely, as Carthaginian civic coinage of this period lacks the magistrate signatures that help anchor Hellenistic issues elsewhere.