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!
Stater
| Issuer | Carthage |
|---|---|
| Year | 310 BC - 290 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (310 BC - 290 BC) |
| Additional information |
These electrum staters were almost certainly struck to pay mercenary troops — Libyan, Iberian, and Campanian soldiers whose loyalty depended entirely on reliable payment in hard metal. The timing coincides precisely with Carthage's desperate military mobilization following Agathocles of Syracuse's audacious invasion of North Africa in 310 BC, the first time a Greek army had ever landed on Carthaginian home soil. Agathocles burned his own ships on landing to prevent retreat.
The electrum alloy, while natural enough in Archaic Greek coinage, was a deliberate economic choice here — gold was too valuable to spend freely on soldiers, silver insufficient in prestige.