Hexadrachm

Carthage struck large silver coins primarily to pay mercenary armies, not for general commerce — the city's own citizens conducted most trade through other means. This issue falls within the First Punic War's lead-up, when Carthaginian military expenditure in Sicily was driving urgent demand for high-denomination silver. Mercenaries from Libya, Iberia, Gaul, and the Balearic Islands expected payment in hard coin, and Carthage obliged with some of the heaviest silver struck anywhere in the western Mediterranean.

Müller's cataloguing of this type remains the authoritative reference, though attribution of individual dies continues to generate disagreement among specialists.