Precolumbian African-Carribean Interaction

Ever Since high school, I've been vaguely aware of scholarly concepts that Africans discovered the New World before Columbus. A geologist named Mark McMenamin interprets the pattern on gold coins minted in the North African city Carthage around 350 and 320 B.C. I have included several versions for your deciphering.

His argument is based around evidence that the Carthaginians were culturally linked to contemporary Phoenicians and that both peoples had been widely regarded for their sailing and maritime accomplishments in the Mediterranean and the British Isles.

The image was simply overlooked as confusingly written, Phoenician script. However, this theory was discounted in the 1960's and has baffled anyone since.

My take: Why would you make something that intricate if it was going to be sloppy and unrecognizable? There probably is some credibility to McMenamin hypothesis yet it need not be standard operating procedure until more evidence is uncovered. Perhaps this is unlikely because, going back to the coin example: why would you plot a little-known land mass on a coin to be seen by many without plotting it on other documents?

I remember an article in a magazine a few years back about African traders bringing metal shipments to the Carribean during the 14th and 15th centuries yet I couldnt find any articles on that...if you can, let me know :)