greetings all!
i haven't added any coins to my
collection in quite some time, but today i present one of the two coins i got for my birthday.
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-113125 this one is a peculier coin from Taras, struck during Hannibal's occupation of the city from 212-209 BC. at this time the Tarentine
mint had not produced any coins for 15 years or so, having been shut down by the
Romans circa 228. but upon entering the city in 213-212 Hannibal reopened the
mint and began to strike silver coins once again, although on the smaller Punic
standard and of greatly debased artistic
style.
these 'half shekels' never exceeded 4 grams, nearly half the
weight of the earlier didrachms. in fact
Sear refers to these coins as drachms, although no drachms struck at Taras ever resembled these
types. the fact that the old
didrachm type was chosen suggests two things to me. the first and most likely is that the horseman/dolphin rider imagery was intended to inspire confidence in the new
reduced types. the second is my own personal
hope that this was somehow Hannibal's way of giving
Rome the 'one-fingered salute'.
whatever the cause, the coins of this period represent the final emissions of this formerly prolific city, and it is too bad that they failed to do justice to the once beautiful pieces struck by
Italy's greatest Greek polis.
in any case, while not particularly
rare these coins of the Punic occupation are an important addition to any serious
collection of Tarentine coins, and i'm certainly glad to have this one in mine.
i
hope you agree.
~
Peter