The New York Sale
Auction 54 11 Jan 2022
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Zeugitania, Carthage. Gold Stater (9.23 g), ca. 350-320 BC. Head of Tanit left, wreathed with grain ears, wearing triple-pendant earring and necklace with eight drop-pendants. Reverse: Horse standing right on ground line; before forelegs, trefoils of pellets. Jenkins & Lewis grp. Iiih (uncertain dies); MAA 12. Boldly struck in high relief. Elegant style and slight shadows of double-sriking on both sides. Fully lustrous and superb quality. Mint State. Estimated Value $7,500 - UP
The obverse type of this gold coin reflects the strong influence that years of war against Syracuse for control of Sicily had on the money of Carthage. The female head clearly copies that of Persephone on fourth-century tetradrachms of Syracuse although on this gold coin struck at Carthage the image almost certainly was not understood as Greek Persephone, but rather as the Punic goddess Tanit. She was the patron deity of Carthage alongside her consort Ba'al Hammon and has been suspected of having a cult that involved child sacrifice, although this is disputed. The horse on the reverse is almost as ubiquitous on Carthaginian and Siculo-Punic coinage as the head of Tanit-Persephone on the obverse, but its meaning is somewhat less certain. It may be a somewhat generic symbol of military might, perhaps referencing the agile Numidian cavalry frequently employed by the Carthaginians. On the other hand, it has also been suggested that the horse, which sometimes appears with a solar disk, may have served as a symbol of Ba'al Hammon.
The obverse type of this gold coin reflects the strong influence that years of war against Syracuse for control of Sicily had on the money of Carthage. The female head clearly copies that of Persephone on fourth-century tetradrachms of Syracuse although on this gold coin struck at Carthage the image almost certainly was not understood as Greek Persephone, but rather as the Punic goddess Tanit. She was the patron deity of Carthage alongside her consort Ba'al Hammon and has been suspected of having a cult that involved child sacrifice, although this is disputed. The horse on the reverse is almost as ubiquitous on Carthaginian and Siculo-Punic coinage as the head of Tanit-Persephone on the obverse, but its meaning is somewhat less certain. It may be a somewhat generic symbol of military might, perhaps referencing the agile Numidian cavalry frequently employed by the Carthaginians. On the other hand, it has also been suggested that the horse, which sometimes appears with a solar disk, may have served as a symbol of Ba'al Hammon.