⅜ Stater

Carthaginian electrum issues of this period fall squarely within the Second Punic War, when Hannibal's Italian campaign demanded extraordinary military financing. Carthage had long used electrum coinage — an alloy it could not fully control for consistency — primarily to pay mercenary troops, whose wages had already sparked the catastrophic Mercenary War of 241–238 BC. The fractional denominations were particularly suited to small-scale soldier pay and local Sicilian and North African transactions.

The electrum alloy in Carthaginian issues varies noticeably in gold-to-silver ratio across dies, likely reflecting ad hoc sourcing rather than a fixed mint standard.