★ Beautiful Tetradrachm ★

Sicily. Entella. Punic issues. Circa 300-289 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25mm, 17.26g, 6h). Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Head of horse left; club to left, palm tree to right, Punic MḤSBM below. Jenkins, Punic 396 (O121/R324); SNG Lloyd 1646; HGC 2, 295. Extremely Fine. Lightly toned and of good style.

Ex Bruun Rasmussen Auction 758, lot 4292.

The present Siculo-Punic issue the obverse is imitated from the coinage of Alexander the Great. This coinage could have been known in Carthage quite quickly as a there were strong ties to the mother city of Tyre and it is known that a Carthaginian embassy was active during the time of Alexander’s siege of the Phoenician city. The adaptation of this eastern imperial type may have been intended to show the Carthaginians imperial ambition in the west.