Sicily, Entella. Silver Tetradrachm (16.78 g), ca. 300-289 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion's skin headdress. Reverse: 'MHMHNT (Neo-Punic), Horse's head left; before neck, upright club; behind, palm tree with date clusters. Jenkins 286 (O91/R235); SNG Lockett 1055 (same obv. die). Lustrous surfaces. Fine, elegant style. Lightly toned. Superb Extremely Fine. Estimated Value $2,500 - UP
Like the Carthaginian gold stater in this sale, this Siculo-Punic tetradrachm also illustrates the deep impact that exposure to Greek culture and iconography had on the development of Punic coinages. While the stater makes use of the Syracusan Persephone type so ubiquitous in Sicily to represent Punic Tanit, here the die engravers have copied the Herakles obverse type of the widely circulating tetradrachms of Alexander the Great, probably both as an indicator of "good money" recognizable to all recipients and to represent Melqart, the chief deity of Tyre, the mother-city of Carthage. This Phoenician god, who had been syncretized with Greek Herakles since at least the fifth century BC, was also worshiped by the Carthaginians. Also, like the stater, this tetradrachm features an equine reverse type - the head of a horse. This may refer to the foundation myth of Carthage, in which the auspicious site of the city was indicated by the discovery of a horse's head in the earth.