Trihemishekel

Struck during the First Punic War, when Carthage was financing a prolonged and increasingly desperate naval conflict against Rome. Sicilian mints under Carthaginian control produced much of this coinage to pay mercenary troops — Libyan infantry, Iberian slingers, Gallic cavalry — whose wages were the primary driver of output, not civic or commemorative purpose.

The collapse of Carthaginian silver pay at the war's end in 241 BC directly triggered the Mercenary War, a savage three-year revolt that nearly destroyed the city before Hamilcar Barca suppressed it.