Shekel

Carthage had no permanent mint infrastructure in the modern sense — coinage was produced in campaigns, tied directly to military payroll demands. This shekel type belongs to a production window that coincides with Carthaginian operations in Sicily, where decades of grinding conflict with Syracuse and the western Greek cities required enormous quantities of silver coin to pay mercenary forces. The metal itself likely moved through Sardinian and North African trade networks before striking.

The J&L 16 attribution places this within a well-documented sequence, but individual die studies have shown considerable variation in die axis and flan preparation across the series.