Gold Tritartemorion - Pyrrhos of Epiros

Gold Tritartemorion - Pyrrhos of Epiros - obverseGold Tritartemorion - Pyrrhos of Epiros - reverse

Obverse © Stacks Bowers – Reverse © Roma Numismatics Limited

Features

Issuer Ziz (Punic Sicily)
Type Standard circulation coin
Year 276 BC
Value Tritartemorion (25⁄8)
Currency Litra
Composition Gold
Weight 0.54 g
Shape Round (irregular)
Technique Hammered
Demonetized Yes
Number
N#
197830
References SNG ANS 1# 576,
Joan E. Fischer; 1969. Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum / Part 1. Etruria-Calabria : The Collection of the American Numismatic Society. American Numismatic Society, New York, United States.
SNG Lloyd# 1671
Andrew Meadows, Peter Bagwell Purefoy, Edward S. G. Robinson; 1933. Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum (Great Britain) / Volume 2. The Lloyd Collection / Parts 1-2. Etruria to Thurium. Oxford University Press, London, United Kingdom.
And 3 more volumes.

Obverse

Helmeted head of Athena.

Reverse

Owl standing right, ΠA monogram to left.

Mint

Panormus, Sicily, modern-day Palermo, Italy

Comments

Panormos was a Phoenician settlement occupying the site of present-day Palermo. The city was never Greek and subsequently became the capital of Carthaginian Sicily. Its spacious and magnificent harbor made it an important naval and military base. Panormos briefly fell into the hands of Pyrrhos (276 B.C.) along with most of the rest of the cities controlled by Carthage, including Enna, Akragas, Heraklea, Selinos and Segesta. Distrust and rivalries among his Sicilian allies, the arrival of Carthaginian reinforcements, and his own heavy-handed tactics caused Pyrrhos to lose his Sicilian Greek allies and forced him to return to Italy. Thereupon Panormos again became Carthaginian and remained so until captured by Rome in 254 B.C.

This fractional gold Stater may have been struck as a donative issue by the Greek forces of Pyrrhos who briefly occupied the city. Struck on the Attic standard, it should be viewed as related to contemporary gold issues of Metapontion and Tarentum, also struck to finance the military operations of Pyrrhos of Epiros. The choice of Athena/owl and Apollo/lyre types may have been intended to highlight the concept of Greeks fighting barbarians.

See also

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Date VG F VF XF AU UNC
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