Trihemistater - Carthage

These electrum trihemistaters were struck during the First Punic War — the existential conflict that pitted Carthage against Rome for control of Sicily. The Sicilian mints that had long supplied Carthaginian forces were increasingly unreliable or inaccessible as the war ground on, pushing production back to Zeugitana itself. Electrum coinage of this period reflects the financial strain of sustaining a mercenary army across a contested island for over two decades.

The war ended badly. Carthage's defeat in 241 BC triggered the Mercenary War almost immediately, as unpaid soldiers mutinied — a crisis that nearly destroyed the city before Rome intervened.