SICULO-PUNIC. Sicily. Lilybaeum (as 'Cape of Melkart'). Ca. 350-300 BC. AR tetradrachm (26mm, 17.16 gm, 7h). NGC XF 4/5 - 2/5, scuff. Ca. 330-305 BC. RShMLQRT (Punic), charioteer driving fast quadriga right, reins in left hand, kentron in right, Nike flying left above to crown driver / Head of Tanit-Persephone right, wreathed with grain ears, hair in rows of waves with loose spiral ends, wearing triple-pendant earring and beaded necklace; four dolphins swimming around. SNG Lloyd 1599. HGC 2, 741. Light golden toning on lustrous metal around the bust and bright, matte surfaces around the quadriga, with a long scuff in the field. After the destruction of Motya by the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius I, the Carthaginians relocated the surviving population to a new, well-defended fortress on the western corner of Sicily. The Greeks called the city Lilybaion, while the Carthaginians referred to it as Ras Melqart, or the "Cape of Melqart." A second Punic mint (after Entella) was established there producing coins closely modeled on the issues of Syracuse, usually featuring a charging quadriga backed with a female head surrounded by leaping dolphins. Coinage at Lilybaion ended in about 305 BC and was not resumed until the Romans took full control of Sicily a century later.

HID09801242017

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