Coinage of
Carthage
Mike Markowitz Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington
Hannibal swearing eternal enmity to Rome Jacopo Amigoni (1675-1752)
Detail, “Shield of Hannibal” Silver Vandal North Africa, early 6th century Cabinet des médailles, Paris
Who Were The Carthaginians? • Semi%c people, originally from Tyre in Phoenicia • Language related to Hebrew and Arabic • Kart hadašt “New City” • Main dei%es: Ba’al Hammon, Tanit, Eshmuun, Melqarth • Site of Carthage now a suburb of Tunis • Empire based on nau%cal trade • Included Berbers, Celts, Greeks, and others
Harbor of Carthage
N
Where Did They Live?
182? Death of Hannibal
308 Republic estblished
When Did They Live?
“Kings” (Suffetes)
29 AD Augustus Re-‐founds Carthage
800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 1
814 Legendary Founding
of Carthage
775 Probable Founding of Carthage
507 Treaty With Rome
263 -‐241 First Punic War
219 -‐204 2nd
Punic War
149 -‐146 3rd
Punic War
409 -‐405
Sicilian War First Punic Coins
How did the money work? • “…the gold from West African mines was intended primarily for foreign trade and
a financial reserve, and the silver of Spanish or Greek origin was used mainly for the payment of mercenaries” -‐M. Thompson
• The shekel of Carthage (7.2 grams) was the base of the system of denomina%ons.
A “stater” was ~1 and 1/3 shekel. There were odd frac%ons like 3/8 shekel.
• Sicilian coinage followed the Acc drachma (4.3 grams) standard. • Gold : Silver ra%o was ~ 12 : 1 • “Electrum” alloy falling from 98% gold early in the 4th century BC to c. 33% in the
2nd Punic War…silver fell to c. 33% in the 1st Punic War and again to 15-‐23% in the Lybian revolts (241-‐238 BC).
• silver struck by the Libyans was only 25-‐43% but made to look more like silver by the use of arsenical copper… silver of the 2nd Punic War fell as low as 18% pure. -‐ Howgego
Carthaginian Coinages
• North Africa (“Zeugitana”) • The Libyan Revolt • Sicily (“Siculo-‐Punic”) • Barcids in Spain • Hannibal in Italy
c. 264 Gold hexadrachm (24.75g) Head of Tanit, l. crowned with grain. Date palm, doged border. NFA Sale 22, 1 June 1989, #230 Second recorded specimen 92 – 100% fine. Est. $75,000
Arguably, the most beauQful Punic coin
North Africa: Gold
Carthage (c.350-‐320 B.C.), Gold Stater, 9.41g, 3h. Head of Tanit facing lel, wearing a wreath with three corn-‐sprays and a leaf, a triple-‐pendant earring and a necklace. Rev. Horse standing to right on ground line, three small pellets in front of its forefeet (Jenkins & Lewis, Group IIIh, 77
The New York Sale XXX -‐ 9 January 2013 Realized: $9,000
Carthage AV 1/10th Stater. 350-‐320 BC. Palm tree with two date-‐clusters / Horse's head right. Jenkins & Lewis Group III, 138. 0.94g, 8mm, 12h.
Roma Numisma%cs Ltd Auc%on 2 2 October 2011 Realized: $1,324
North Africa: Electrum
Carthage. EL Stater (7.47 gms), ca. 310-‐270 B.C. Jenkins-‐361. Head of Tanit facing lel wearing triple pendant earring and necklace, hair wreathed with ears of grain; Reverse: Horse standing right.
Stack's Bowers and Ponterio Sale 164 -‐ N.Y.I.N.C. Auc%on 6 January 2012 realized: $7,500
Carthage. Ca. 320-‐310 BC. EL quarter-‐shekel (13mm, 1.86 gm, 12h). Wreathed head of Tanit lel / Horse standing right. Jenkins-‐Lewis Group XIV, 464-‐467. MAA 76. SNG Copenhagen 350 var. Rare. Good Very Fine.
Heritage World Coin Auc%ons New York Signature Sale 3021 6 January 2013 Realized: $950
North Africa: Silver
Classical Numisma%c Group 67 22 September 2004 realized: $2,000
CARTHAGE. Circa 300-‐264 BC. AR Shekel (5.14 gm). Wreathed head of Tanit lel, wearing single pendant earring / Horse standing right, head reverted; Punic leger "ha" below. MAA 37; SNG Copenhagen 143; Müller 114. Good VF, excep%onal style for 3rd century Carthage. Rare early issue without palm
Carthage. 200-‐146 BC. Serrated Double Shekel, 12.62g. (12h). Zeugitana, Carthage, c. 149-‐146 BC, last issue of Carthage. Obv: Head of Tanit lel. Rx: Horse prancing right; caduceus above. Visona, SNR 86 (2007), p. 44, no. 28 (this coin). Only 6 recorded, two from this die combina%on, the others being three in BM, Parma, and another one in private hands. Extremely rare last issue of Carthage with caduceus symbol. About VF.
Gemini, LLC Auc%on X 13 January 2013 realized: $1,600
North Africa: Billon “Billon mul%ples of the shekel began to be minted at Carthage in connec%on with the invasion of Regulus in 256-‐255 BC, sugges%ng both a need for large payments dictated by a state of emergency in Africa and a growing deteriora%on of the standard of fineness…” -‐-‐ Visona (2006)
Circa 264-‐241 BC. Billon Dishekel (27mm, 13.46 g). Wreathed head of Tanit lel / Horse standing right; eight-‐pointed star above. MAA 39; SNG Copenhagen 185; Jenkins and Lewis, pl. 27, 7; Müller 94. VF, darkly toned with some roughness, beger quality silver than usual.
Classical Numisma%c Group Electronic Auc%on 134 1 March 2006 Realized:$ 505
Circa 210-‐202 BC. Billon 26mm (10.70 gm). Head of Tanit lel, ear of grain in hair / Horse standing right; palm behind. SNG Copenhagen 351; Müller 105. VF, some light encrusta%ons.
Classical Numisma%c Group Electronic Auc%on 112 13 April 2005 Realized: $290
Alloy with less than 50% silver
North Africa: Bronze
Ca.221-‐202 B.C. Second Punic War. AE 30mm. Wreathed head of Tanit l. wearing single pendant earring and necklace. Rv. Horse standing r., palm tree behind, Punic 'ST' below; all in linear circle. SNG Cop.341. Agrac%ve black pa%na.
Stack & Kroisos Collec%ons: 14 January 2008 Realized: $475
Æ30 c.264 BC.; 5.20 g. Head of Tanit l./Horse head r. Alexandropoulos 57. Pa%na, EF
Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH Auc%on 133 11 October 2007 Realized $312
North Africa: Libyan Revolt
Leu Numisma%k AG Auc%on 83 6 May 2002 Realized: $753
Shekel (Billon, 7.32g 1), 241-‐238. Head of Herakles to lel, wearing lion-‐skin headdress. Rev. Lion prowling to right; M above, . E.S.G. Robinson, A Hoard of Coins of the Libyans, NC 1953, 24-‐25. SNG Cop. 241. Extremely fine.
Libyan Revolt. Circa 241-‐238 BC. Æ 2 Shekels (29mm, 16.27 g, 12h). Head of Herakles lel, wearing lion skin / Bull bucng right; M above, [ΛIBYΩN in exergue]. Carradice & La Niece 141-‐57; MAA 66; SNG Copenhagen 244. VF, dark green-‐brown pa%na. Overstruck on Head of Isis/Three grain ears type (cf. SNG Copenhagen 226-‐31). Very rare and excep%onal for type.
Classical Numisma%c Group Auc%on 87 18 May 2011 Realized $4,500
Sicilia
MTV’
SYS KFR ‘RK
RSMLQRT
?
?
"In spite of their preoccupaQon with trade and commerce it was only late that theCarthaginians like other SemiQc peoples, came to use coined money. They learnt to do so from the Sicilian Greeks, and the first Punic coinage is that of the individual se[lements, Motya, Panormus, &c., in Western Sicily…" -‐-‐ E. S. G. Robinson (1938)
Sicily: Silver
Siculo-‐Punic. c. 410-‐395 BC. Tetradrachm, 16.17g. (4h). Obv: Forepart of bridled horse right, wheat grain in right field, Nike above holding wreath; doged border. Rx: Palm tree with drooping branches, small date bunches; legend QRTHDST in Punic legers. Jenkins, SNR 53 (1974), p. 37, no. 20 (O6/R20). SNG Copenhagen 71. SNG Delepierre 716. Good VF.
Gemini, LLC Auc%on X 13 January 2013 realized: 5,250
Sicily: Silver
Siculo-‐Punic (c.360 B.C.), Silver Tetradrachm, 17.28g, . Head of Queen Dido facing to lel, wearing an Asia%c headdress, bound with a palmege-‐embroidered band. Rev. Lion walking to lel, its head facing, behind which is a date-‐palm in fruit, the Punic inscrip%on (ShAMMChNT) (the people of the camp) in the exergue (Jenkins, ‘Coins of Punic Sicily’, Part 3, SNR 56, 1977, 271 N (O84/R225) (this coin); …extremely fine, of the highest ar%s%c style of the period, extremely rare, a masterpiece
The New York Sale XXVII 4 January 2012 Realized: $250,000 Another example from the Hunt collec%on realized $200,000 in Triton XV, 3 January 2012
Sicily: Silver
Siculo-‐Punic (c.320 B.C.), Silver Tetradrachm, 17.15g, . Head of Tanit-‐Persephone facing to lel, wearing a wreath of barley, a triple-‐pendant earring and a necklace. Rev. Horse rearing to right, a palm-‐tree in the background (Jenkins, ‘Coins of Punic Sicily’, Part 3, SNR 56, 1977, 126 (O42/R114); Gulbenkian 363 (these dies); de Luynes 1422 (these dies)). Very agrac%ve style, extremely fine.
The New York Sale XXVII 4 January 2012 realized: $37,500
Siculo-‐Punic (Time of the First Punic War, c.264-‐260 B.C.), Silver Dekadrachm or 5 Shekels, 37.92g, . Mint of Carthage. Head of Tanit-‐Persephone facing to lel, wearing a grain-‐wreath and a pendant earring. Rev. Pegasos flying to right, Punic legend (B’RST) below (Jenkins, ‘Coins of Punic Sicily’, Part 4, SNR 57, 1978, 435 (OI’/R5), pl. 17 (this coin); From the Palermo Hoard of 1958
The New York Sale XXVII 4 January 2012 realized: $47,500
Sicily: Bronze
Roma Numisma%cs Ltd Auc%on 2 2 October 2011 realized: $2,493
Solous Æ21. Circa 400-‐350 BC. Youthful male head lel, wearing Acc helmet; Punic leger before / Horse galloping right; kerykeion behind. CNS 9; SNG ANS -‐; SNG Copenhagen -‐; BMC -‐. 6.87g, 21mm, 2h.
Sicily, Panormos (Ziz), ca. 360-‐340 BC, Nomos, AE, gr. 3,3, mm 16. Male head l.. Rv. Pegasos flying r., in ex. punic legend “sys”. Jenkins SNR 50 (1971), tav. 24, 22; CNS I p. 272, 9.
ArtCoins Roma Auc%on 3 31 May 2011 Realized: $250
Sicily: Small Bronze
Sicily. Motya. c. 409-‐397 BC. AE 14, 1.87g. (9h). Obv: Shell. Doged border. Rx: Punic legend MTV' Crab. Doged border. Calcia% I -‐. SNG ANS -‐. SNG Morcom -‐. Laffaille Coll. -‐. Good VF.
Gemini, LLC Auc%on VII 9 January 2011 realized: $1,100
Siculo-‐Punic. c. 300 BC. AE 17, 2.46g. (2h). Obv: Head of Tanit facing lel, wearing triple ear pendant, and necklace. Linear border. Rx: Horse standing right. Behind, palm tree. Line border. Calcia% II 388, 20. SNG Morcom 905. Good VF. Gemini, LLC Auc%on VII 9 January 2011 realized: $410
Spain
Bri%sh Museum double shekel of Carthage Issued by the Barcid family in Spain From the Mogente Hoard, Valencia, Spain, around 230 BC
Diameter: 25.0 mm Weight: 14.61 g CM 1911-‐7-‐2-‐1 (IGCH 2328)
Carthago Nova. Trishekel circa 221-‐206, AR 21.39 g. Laureate head (Melqart or Hannibal) l., with club over r. shoulder. Rev. Elephant r. De Navasques 458. Villaronga CNAA, 12 (this coin). Burgos 485. Robinson, Essays Ma`ngly, 6(b). Villaronga-‐Benages 552. Of the highest rarity, five specimens known
Numisma%ca Ars Classica Auc%on 66 17 October 2012 Realized $59,248 Perhaps the single most famous and
widely reproduced Carthaginian coin
Spain: Silver
Carthago Nova. Carthaginian occupa%on. Circa 237-‐209 BC. AR Shekel (7.28 gm). Bare male head (Hannibal?) lel / Horse right, palm tree behind. MHC 144 (same obverse die); CNH pg. 72, 74; SNG BM Spain 104. Toned, good VF. Rare.
Classical Numisma%c Group Mail Bid Sale 63 21 May 2003 Realized: $3,100
The New York Sale XXVII 4 January 2012 Realized: $60,000
c.237-‐209 B.C.), Silver Shekel, 7.17g, . Struck at Carthago Nova. Male head (Hamilcar?) facing to lel, wearing a diadem. Rev. Prow of a galley to right, with a shield on its deck, a dolphin below to right (SNG BM Spain 91; Villaronga, MHC 19; E. Robinson, ‘Punic Coins of Spain and their bearing on the Roman Republican Series’, in Essays in Roman Coinage presented to Harold Ma`ngly (1956), 49, 4c; Villaronga, CNH p. 64, 10; SNG Copenhagen Supplement 1332). Lightly toned, extremely fine, one of the finest known specimens of this very rare coin.
Spain: Bronze
SPAIN, Punic Spain. Circa 237-‐209 BC. Æ Unit (28mm, 10.66 g, 12h). Helmeted head of Athena lel; Y below chin / Horse standing right; b below. MHC 125; CNH 54; SNG BM Spain 51. VF, dark brown pa%na. Struck on a broad flan. The references refer to the leger on the obverse as being a Punic yod, but the leger is only fairly clear on the BM example, where it appears similar to that found on the present coin. Here the leger appears more like a stylized Punic gimel, an inverted nun, or a retrograde zayin.
Classical Numisma%c Group Auc%on 85 15 September 2010 realized: $370
SPAIN, Punic Spain. Circa 237-‐209 BC. Æ Quarter Unit (13mm, 1.87 g, 12h). Wreathed head of Tanit lel / Crested Corinthian helmet lel with chin and neck pieces; Phoenician ayin to righ. ACIP 583; SNG BM Spain 67. VF, green pa%na with faint earthen deposits. Rare.
Classical Numisma%c Group Electronic Auc%on 287 26 September 2012 realized: $120
Spain: Bronze
Carthago Nova, Punic issues, c.220-‐215 BC, AE coins (12), Unit, head of Mars right, rev. palm tree (Burgos 400), an agrac%ve example, very fine, others (9), head of Tanit lel, rev. horses's head, some with symbol below (Burgos 394, 395), generally good fine, one or two beger, Half-‐Units (2), head of Athena lel, rev. palm tree (Burgos 409), good fine, head of Tanit lel, rev. horse with palm tree behind (Burgos 392), agrac%ve, very fine
Spink Auc%on 9008 19 March 2009 Realized $244
Italy:
BRUTTIUM, The Breci. Circa 216-‐214 BC. AV Hemidrachm (2.10 g, 11h). Acc Standard. Second Punic War issue. Bearded head of Herakles lel, wearing lion's skin headdress; club behind, %ny G (engraver's signature) below / Nike, holding kentron and reins, driving biga right; serpent below. Arslan dies 5/8; Scheu G.8; HN Italy 1953; SNG ANS 15 corr.; SNG Lloyd 540; SNG Copenhagen 1613; Jameson 404; De Luynes 653 (all from the same dies). Superb EF.
Classical Numisma%c Group Mail Bid Sale 75 23 May 2007 realized: $6,600
Brucum. Time of the Second Punic War, ca.221-‐201 B.C. Gold Drachm, ca. 213-‐205 B.C. Bearded head of Poseidon l. wearing taenia, trident behind, dolphin below. Rv. Hippocamp r. on which Amphitrite is seated l., holding Eros who stands drawing a bow in extended r. hand; star to r., %ny Γ (engraver's signature) at feet of Eros; BPETTIΩN below. 4.25 grams. SNG Lloyd 539 (same dies), HN Italy 1951. Extremely rare
Stack & Kroisos Collec%ons 14 January 2008 realized: $42,500
“ArQsQcally, this coin rivals the excepQonal Italian and Sicilian gold issues produced in the 4th and 3rd centuries.”
Italy:
Gorny & Mosch Auc%on 169 12 October 2008 realized: $5,956
BRUTTIUM, Carthaginian occupa%on. Circa 216-‐211 BC. EL 3/8 Shekel (2.90 g, 12h). Janiform female heads, each wearing grain ear wreath / Zeus, holding thunderbolt in right hand, scepter in lel, standing in quadriga right, driven by Nike, who stands beside him, holding reins. Robinson, Second pl. V, 3 (Capua); Jenkins & Lewis 487 (Capua); SNG ANS 146 (Capua); HN Italy 2013; SNG Copenhagen 357. EF, light reddish toning. Among the finest of this difficult issue.
Capua (?) Frac%on, circa 216-‐211, AR 0.82 g. Head of Artemis l. Rev. Elephant r., with castle on its back; in exergue, one pellet and P. E.S.G. Robinson, Coinages of the Second Punic War, NC 1964, pl. 5, 6 (these dies). See also NC 1948, pp. 165-‐166.
Numisma%ca Ars Classica Auc%on 33 6 April 2006 realized: $3,110
Italy
BRUTTIUM. Breci(?). Silver quarter shekel (1.78 gm). By 209-‐ca. 205 BC (under Hannibal). Head of Demeter or Tanit lel, crowned with grain, wearing pendant earring and necklace / Free horse standing right on ground line. HN Italy 2020. Extremely fine South Italian ci%es, including Locri and Tarentum, have been proposed as the mint site
Freeman & Sear Manhagan Sale II 4 January 2011 Realized: $550
Hannibal. AR Half Shekel 215/205 BC, Capua (?). Head of Tanit/ Horse, in field sun disk, Punic leger "ayin” below. SNG Cop. 362; Robinson in NC 1964, S. 45, 4. 4.08 g
Dr. Busso Peus Nachfolger Auc%on 372 30 October 2002 Realized $296
Italy
Capua, c. 216-‐211 BC, AE, (g 14,02, mm 25, h 11). Laureate and bearded head of Zeus r.; at l. two stars, Rv. kapu (in Oscan characters), Selene driving biga r.; above two stars. HNItaly 488; SNG ANS 206-‐207. Extraordinary specimen. Very rare.
ArtCoins Roma Auc%on 6 10 December 2012 Realized: $1,163
Classical Numisma%c Group Triton V 15 January 2002 Realized: $260
CAMPANIA, Capua . Circa 216-‐211 BC. Æ Biunx (12.89 gm). Laureate head of Zeus right; two stars behind / Eagle standing right on thunderbolt, head lel; stars below wings. SNG ANS 204; SNG Copenhagen 330; SNG Morcom 85; Laffaille -‐; Weber 290 (this coin). Good VF, green and brown pa%na, surfaces a ligle rough. Ex Sir Hermann Weber Collec%on, 290.
“Surviving ancient sources about the Carthaginians written by their bitter enemies depict them as greedy, cruel, treacherous, and brutal. The coins tell us a different story – of a multi-ethnic society of people who loved horses and palm trees and appreciated beauty. We can never recover the “truth” of what it was like to live in the ancient world, but numismatics gives us an array of objects that speak for themselves, if we learn how to listen."
Punic mausoleum Sabrata, Libya
Crawford, Michael H. Coinage and Money Under the Roman Republic: Italy and the Mediterranean Economy. London. 1985 Connell, Robert. The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic. New York. Random (2010) Jenkins, G.K. Coins of Punic Sicily. Swiss Numismatic Review, 4 parts: 50 (1971) to 57 (1978) Jenkins, G. K. and R. B. Lewis. Carthaginian Gold And Electrum Coins (Royal Numismatic So-ciety Special Publication No. 2.) London. 1963 Lancel, Serge. Carthage: A History. Oxford. Blackwell. (1995) Miles, Richard. Carthage Must be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization. New York. (2011) Viola, Mauro. Corpus Nummorum Punicorum, Numismatica Varesi, Rome, (2010) 960 pages Visonà, Paolo. “Carthaginian Coinage in Perspective,” American Jounal of Numismatics 10 1-27. (1998) Visonà, Paolo. “A New Wrinkle in the Mid-Carthaginian Silver Series,” Numismatic Chronicle, 166 15-23 (2006) Warmington, B. H. Carthage. Baltimore. Penguin. 1960
References
