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!
Trihemistater
| Issuer | Carthage |
|---|---|
| Year | 264 BC - 241 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Gold Trihemistater (18) |
| 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 | Idealized female head of Tanit facing left, rendered in fine Hellenistic style, adorned with a wreath of grain ears bearing a pellet on the leaf, a triple-pendant earring, and an elaborate necklace with twelve pendants. The portrait exhibits the characteristic almond-shaped eye and flowing hair associated with Punic artistic tradition. The field is plain, with no inscription or exergual element. |
|---|---|
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (264 BC - 241 BC) |
| Additional information |
The date range here corresponds precisely to the First Punic War, the 23-year conflict with Rome that consumed Carthaginian resources on a staggering scale. Electrum coinage of this type was struck specifically to pay Carthage's mercenary armies — Libyan infantry, Iberian cavalry, Balearic slingers — troops who demanded hard metal, not promises. The relatively low gold content compared to earlier Carthaginian electrum issues likely reflects the fiscal strain of sustaining that payroll across two decades of attritional warfare.
The war ended badly: the catastrophic naval defeat at the Aegates Islands in 241 BC forced Carthage into a ruinous indemnity, and the mercenaries, unpaid, launched the brutal Truceless War almost immediately after.