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32
Sicily, Messana. Silver Tetradrachm (16.02 g), 425-421 BC. Charioteer, holding kentron and reins, driving
biga of bules left; above, Nike flying right, crowning charioteer with wreath, and holding fillet. Rev. ME
S−
S
ANION, hare springing right; below, hippocamp left. Caltabiano series XIII, 494 (D201/R202); SNG
Lloyd 1094 (same dies). Well struck on a slightly porous flan. Well toned. Choice Very Fine.
$1,000
33
Sicily, Messana. Silver Tetradrachm (17.44 g), ca. 420-413 BC. The nymph Messana, holding kentron and
reins, driving slow biga of mules right; above, Nike flying right, crowning mules with diadem; in exergue,
two dolphins confronted. Rev.
MES
-
S
-
ANI
-
O
-
N
, hare springing right; below, dolphin right. Caltabiano
499 (D202’/R207); SNG ANS 361 (same dies); SNG Lockett 826 (same obv. die). Well struck and from
finely executed dies. Lustrous surfaces with a tiny area of horn silver at 6 o’clock on the reverse. Beautiful
fresh dies. Nearly Mint State.
$3,000
From the Dionysus Collection.
The mule biga and leaping hare types of this coin reflect the strong political and iconographic influence of Rhe-
gion across the strait in southern Magna Graecia in the fifth century BC. Both types were originally introduced by Anax-
ilas, the tyrant of Rhegion (494-476 BC), around 480 BC. The mule biga celebrated his victory in the Olympic Games
in 484 or 480 BC while the hare supposedly referred to his importation of the animal to Sicily for hunting. Nota-
bly, while these types disappeared from the coinage of Rhegion after the death of Anaxilas, the hare became a civ-
ic badge of Messana that continued in use into the late fifth century BC. This coin illustrates the early transformation of
the Rhegian types into civic types appropriate to Messana for here the local nymph rather than the tyrant drives the biga.