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The origins of Punic numismatics are still quite unexplored. This paper provides a small bibliographic review of the numismatic books appeared between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries that deal with this topic, to outline some evolutionary features of the discipline.

[cat] Aquest treball analitza la presència militar cartaginesa entre l'Ebre i els Pirineus en el nord-est peninsular durant la Segona Guerra Púnica. En primer lloc, s'estudien les referències de les fonts escrites i els indicis arqueològics. En segon lloc, s'analitzen les mencions dels autors antics sobre la forma i disposició dels campaments de campanya cartaginesos i, finalment, es presen- ten aquelles restes mobles que ens permeten localitzar aquests campaments, bàsicament, mone- des, restes d'armament i ceràmiques., [eng] This work analyzes the Carthaginian military presence between the Ebro river and the Pyrenees in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula during the Second Punic War. In first place, references to written sources and archaeological evidence are studied. Secondly, the mentions of the ancient sources concerning the disposition and structure of the Carthaginian military camps are analyzed. Finally, we present the movables related to those encampments; mainly coins, weaponry and pottery.

The article focuses on the numismatic exhibition at the Museum of the Red Castle in Tripoli, which has about 2000 specimens. It was possible to record in detail the ancient part of this exhibition in 2009, before the “Arab Spring”. The exhibition certainly includes at least two hoards of sestertii from the II-III century AD and another treasure of nummi from the end of the V century; most of the remaining coins almost certainly come from other Punic and Roman imperial hoards, of which there are possible traces in literature. The study of this material, in addition to recording the charateristics of coin hoarding in Tripolitania between the third century BC and the fifth century AD, literally describes a heritage whose fate is currently unknown.

The chemical composition and the metal provenance of fifty five bronze Punic coins of the series known as the "free galloping horse", dating back to 350-320 BC and struck in the Punic settlements of Sicily and Carthage, have been studied. The results indicate that the coins have been produced using a copper based alloy characterised by a highly variable tin content ranging from 1.07 wt% to 12.8 wt% and by a very variable amount of impurities, some of them partly coming probably coming from remelting processes. The results indicate also that deliberate adding was used to increase the metal to fill the mould, as the addition of lead instead of the moss expansive and rare tin. This large variation of the content of the alloying, minor and trace elements manifests relevant differences in the alloying and refining practices and that a specific trend in metal composition and alloying is not shown. Furthermore, via lead isotope analysis is possible to attempt the location of the geographical sources of the metals and the results indicate that one third of the coins exhibits a characteristic Cypriot signature.