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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cmezner, post: 3313438, member: 87809&quot;]Punic tetradrachm struck at Entella, Sicily circa 300 - 289 BC. The coins minted at this time exhibit both Greek and Punic designs. These coins were, most probably, used to pay the Carthaginian army, composed of mercenaries from all over the Classical world. On later coins, a horse standing or in action, with a palm tree in the background reverse was transformed to show only the head and neck of the horse with a comparatively small palm tree in the field behind. The obverse type is the head of young Heracles wearing the scalp of the Nemean lion, which must have been borrowed from tetradrachms of Alexander III the Great. Furthermore, when the Punic people saw the head of Heracles, they no doubt saw it as a mirror image of their own mythological hero, Melqart. The reverse though, with the national emblem of Carthage, the horse&#039;s head, palm tree and Phoenician letters, is entirely Punic in character. The two main variations of this coin (&quot;quaestors&quot; issues and &quot;people of the camp&quot; issues) were probably issued concurrently and from the same location, although the reasons are cloudy. Like closely related Hebrew, Punic was a Semitic language written without vowels, so we must guess how words were pronounced. </p><p>According to Stephanus, Carthage was also called KAKKABH, a word that in Punic means &#039;the head of a horse’. </p><p><br /></p><p>16.90 g, 22 x 24 mm; </p><p>Entella, Sicily circa 300 - 289 BC.</p><p>Ref.: Dewing 983; Jenkins Punic IV, Series 5b, Plate 6, 330 ; See Jenkins, “Coins of Punic Sicily”, Part 4</p><p>Obverse: Alexander the Great as Melqart/Herakles facing right wearing the Nemean lion skin knotted around neck, horns curling around his ears</p><p>Reverse: Horse&#039;s head facing left, club in front, and palm tree behind. The Punic legend below ‘mhsbm’ means &quot;Paymaster&quot; or &quot;Quaestor&quot;</p><p>[ATTACH=full]877765[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]877766[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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