Carthaginian coinage

Carthaginian or Punic currency refers to the coins of ancient Carthage, a Phoenician city-state located near present-day Tunis, Tunisia.

Carthage soon became the largest of these communities, establishing particularly close economic, cultural, and political ties with Motya in western Sicily and Sulci in Sardinia.

This coinage consisted solely of Attic weight silver tetradrachms (17.26 g), known as Series I (c. 410-390 BC), containing five separate chronological sub-groups (A-F).

The obverse of these earliest coins bears the front half of a horse facing right, with a Punic language legend reading QRTḤDŠT (𐤒𐤓𐤕𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕, 'Carthage').

[7] The whole series had come to an end by the early 380s BC, since a selection of all the sub-groups appears in two hoards deposited at that time: Contessa and Vito Superiore (IGCH 2119 and 1910).

Later issues of Carthaginian silver were produced in Sicily, at Lilybaeum (modern Marsala), but this city was only founded in 397/396 BC, following the destruction of Motya.

[8] The gold-issue, Jenkins-Lewis Group I, is dated solely on the basis of its iconographic similarity to the final sub-group of the silver (Series I (F)), which suggests that it was minted at the same time.

[9] In the ancient Mediterranean, the issue of gold coinage was often connected to times of particular crisis, when silver stocks had been exhausted and states were forced to resort to melting down jewellery and religious dedications.

Series I introduces two key motifs that continued to appear regularly on Carthaginian coinage throughout its history: the horse and the palm tree.

This kind of visual pun, often known as a 'canting type', was common on classical Greek coinage, particularly in Sicily, where prominent examples appear at Himera, Selinus, Zancle, and Leontini.

[18] Both Group II and III have same iconography: a female head modelled on Kore on the obverse and a horse on the reverse, without a palm tree or an inscriptions.

[19] The impetus for this renewed minting seems to have been the Carthaginian interventions in eastern Sicily following the demise of Dionysius II's regime in Syracuse and then the Sixth Sicilian War against Timoleon.

The date of the silver coinage is indicated by the fact that only early issues (sub-group A.i) appear in the Nissora and Gibil Gabib hoards (IGCH 2133 and 2132), which were deposited in the 330s BC.

Coins of sub-group D appear in the Megara Hyblaea hoard (IGCH 2135) which was deposited in the 320s BC, indicating that the series must have been coming to an end in that decade.

[19] The silver of Series II is generally identified as the product of a military mint that sometimes moved with the Carthaginian army but was usually located in Lilybaeum (modern Marsala).

109-119, with a wreathed female head on the obverse and a horse standing in front of a palm on the reverse (i.e. similar to the earlier Series II silver), was issued in western Sicily in very large quantities from around 305 BC until ca.

154-178 has flat, cast flans with a slightly lower average weight (4.5 g), the female figure has a concave neck, and a wide variety of mintmarks.

Finds in graves at Lilybaeum show that the coins began to be minted before 300 BC and its presence at Montagna dei Cavalli in the destruction layer of ca.

[36] The image of Heracles on the obverse of Series V was probably interpreted as his standard equivalent in Phoenician religion: Melqart, the chief god of Carthage's mother-city, Tyre.

Jenkins argues that the adoption of the motif was simply motivated by the widespread presence of Alexander's coinage in this period, but suggests that the change might also have been a claim to Carthaginian pre-eminence in the Phoenician world, following the destruction of Tyre in 332 BC.

[43] The coins have marks on them left by patches of rust on the dies, suggesting that they were made out iron, as part of an emergency coinage issue - probably Regulus' invasion in 256 BC.

The obverse depicts a wreathed female head as in the previous issues, while the reverse shows a standing horse looking forward, with a sun disc flanked by two uraei hovering above its back.

253-254, with a female head on the obverse and a horse standing in front of a palm on the reverse, which weigh 15 g. Around 230 BC, a more complicated system of bronze and billon coins are introduced, with three denominations: SNG Cop.

[57] A pure gold quarter shekel (1.7 g), Jenkins-Lewis, Group XIV, with a female head on the obverse and a standing horse on the reverse, was minted along with a billon coin with the same iconography in the period immediately before the outbreak of the Second Punic War.

The obverse bears a male head wearing a wreath (perhaps Melqart) and the reverse has an elephant, accompanied by the Punic letter aleph (𐤀).

[67][64] These coinages are relatively common in museum collections because the disturbed conditions of the Second Punic War meant that they were frequently deposited in hoards.

[71] During the Third Punic War, the Carthaginians issued their very last coinage in gold, silver, and bronze, with a female head on the obverse and a horse raising one hoof, with a pellet in the field.

Owing to the absence of coin hoards at that time, it was based almost entirely on stylistic features of the coinages, but it established a basic framework for the different metals and remained the standard reference work until the mid-twentieth century.

Key advances have been made by Paolo Visonà's studies of Punic bronze coinage and its circulation patterns and Suzanne Frey-Kupper's 2013 publication of the coin finds from the excavations at Monte Iato.

A collection of recovered coins is maintained at the Tunisian Mint Museum (French: Musée de la Monnaie en Tunisie) at the Central Bank in Tunis.