Stater - Carthage

These electrum staters were struck in Sicily during — or immediately following — the invasion of Agathocles of Syracuse, who crossed into North Africa in 310 BC and brought war directly to Carthaginian territory for the first time. The emergency conditions of that conflict almost certainly drove accelerated coin production; Carthage needed to pay mercenary troops, and mercenaries demanded hard metal.

The electrum itself was not mined locally — Carthage imported gold from sub-Saharan trade routes through the Sahara and likely alloyed it at the mint. Natural electrum composition varied, and die studies by Jenkins and Lewis revealed enough alloy inconsistency across the series to suggest multiple melting batches rather than a single controlled mint run.