Watch List notes:

JDL Collection Part II: Geek Coins
CARTHAGE.

Tetradrachm, Sicilian mint c. 300, Attic standard, AR 17.20 g.

Obv. Head of young Heracles right, wearing skin of Ne- mean lion.
Rev. [= 'MHMHNT (am machanat, "people of the camp"), Punic legend] Horse's head left; in right field, date- palm with two clusters of dates; border of dots.
Literature
SNG Ashmolean 2165
SNG Lloyd 1644
G. K. Jenkins, "Coins of Punic Sicily. Part 4", RSN 57, 1978, 321 (same dies)
Gulbenkian 1, 375 (same dies) Jameson 916 (same dies)
M.-M. Bendenoun, Coins of the Ancient World, A portrait of the JDL Collection, Tradart, Genève, 2009, 41 (this coin)
Condition
A bold portrait. Lovely light iridescent tone and good extremely fine.

Provenance
Tkalec AG, Zürich 1992, lot 50.
Three centuries of warfare that raged between Carthaginians and Greeks contributed much to the historical narrative of Sicily, the most contested island of the Western Mediterranean. From the late 5th through the early 3rd Centuries B.C. these wars impacted the curren- cy of Sicily. They were the impetus for some important and visually appealing coinages – mainly silver tetradrachms – used to pay the expenses of war.
Centuries before the Greeks had begun to colonize the West, Phoenician merchants and adventurers founded a network of coastal cities that initially were little more than trading hubs. The Phoenicians were extraordinary sailors, and were relentlessly successful in com- merce, by which those who resided in Carthage built a powerful commercial empire.
Siculo-Punic coins bear a delightful combination of Sicilian Greek and Punic design elements, and have Punic inscriptions that in many respects still defy precise understanding. Some of these coins,
including this example, are inscribed MHMHNT (s'mmhnt), which is thought to mean "people of the camp." The finest Siculo-Punic coins were struck with dies engraved by gifted artists – presumably Greeks
– who very likely had been brought into Carthaginian service by hire or capture. Though the most influential prototypes for their designs were tetradrachms of Syracuse, some of the later issues, including the present type, find their inspiration elsewhere.
In this case the reverse design features two important Carthaginian symbols, a horse and a palm tree (the phoenix dactylifera) laden with date clusters. Many earlier Siculo-Punic tetradrachms show a horse standing or in action with a palm tree in the background, whe- reas on this type only the head and neck of the horse is represented. This series, which commenced in about 300 B.C., was the last of Siculo-Punic tetradrachms.
The obverse bears a youthful portrait of the Greek hero Heracles wearing the scalp of the Nemean lion. There is good reason to believe this portrait was modeled after the one that originated on the silver coinage of the Macedonian King Alexander III (336-323 B.C.). Even though Alexander's coins were not regularly exported to Magna Graecia, they would have been familiar to many of the
Greek mercenaries hired by the Carthaginians. We may also consi- der that the expansive Phoenician and Carthaginian trade networks were a factor, for Alexander's coins would have been well known to their trading partners. Heracles would have been a thoroughly acceptable design to the Greeks, and the Carthaginians would have recognized him as a rough equivalent to their own mythologi- cal hero Melkart.