Trihemistater

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.