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I possess a Carthegian Zeugitania bronze coin which was reportedly minted around 220 BC between the First and Second Punic War. It is 16mm wide and features Tanit on the reverse. My query is what would that have bought, thinking in terms of provisions. A follow up query if that's permitted is how many of these coins made a shekel.

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    What have your preliminary research shown?
    – Bartors
    Sep 21, 2022 at 11:05
  • I have found this site suggesting it's 1/5 of I assume a shekel. ( de unidad) However none precisely match mine. monedaiberica.org/v2. My query is the purchasing power of the coin. Ideally some sort of price list for the basics around the 2nd Cent BC.
    – user56240
    Sep 21, 2022 at 12:49
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    The problem here is going to be we don't really have any surviving Carthaginian sources. From WP: "Due to the destruction of virtually all Carthaginian texts after the Third Punic War, much of what is known about its civilization comes from Roman and Greek sources, many of whom wrote during or after the Punic Wars, and to varying degrees were shaped by the hostilities". Probably the best someone could do is check the precious metals content and figure out what that would have bought in Greece or Rome, but having its own mines, its possible the value of the metals was lower in Carthage.
    – T.E.D. ♦
    Sep 21, 2022 at 13:59
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    Im not so sure that is a 1/5 shekel, can you weight it? But we do know that a shekel was worth 4 denarii, and 1 denarius was about a days wage in Rome for a skilled laborer. see this site for a better breakdown - forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=57756.25
    – ed.hank
    Sep 21, 2022 at 14:42
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    @SurusTours - i believe there was also a smaller coin called a half-piece or half-unit. also coinage in Carthage was all over the place after the second punic war when they switched from gold/silver (that was being used to pay roman war indemnity) to a mostly (almost totally) bronze coinage. So depending on the time it was made it could have been called a couple different things.
    – ed.hank
    Sep 23, 2022 at 16:03

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