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800-USCOINS (872-6467)(214) 528-3500
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Auction Name: 2025 November 6 - 7 World & Ancient Coins Platinum Session and Signature® Auction
Lot Number: 32004
Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/3126*32004
SICILY. Messana. Ca. 425-413 BC. AR tetradrachm (25mm, 17.23 gm, 8h). NGC Choice VF 5/5 - 3/5, Fine Style, brushed. Nymph Messana driving biga of mules walking right; Nike walking right on reigns to crown mules with wreath, olive leaf and berry in exergue / ΜΕΣ-Σ-Α-Ν-ΙΟ-Ν, hare springing right; dolphin leaping right below. SNG ANS 358-359. SNG Lloyd 1095. Smoothly defined animal portraiture.
Ex David P. Herman, private sale with old dealer's tag included.
The coins of Greek Sicily abound with symbolism, the meaning of which is not always obvious to the modern observer. Messana, located on the northwest corner of Sicily and the third most populous city on the island, chose as its civic badges a chariot pulled by a pair of mules (biga) and a leaping hare. On this pleasing tetradrachm, the mule biga is driven by a woman, most likely the nymph Messana, while the hare springs over a similarly leaping dolphin. As to what it all means, we can surmise as follows: In 484 or 480 BC, a mule team from Messana won the Olympic Games in the event known as the anape (mule biga race); naturally, civic pride prompted the Messenians to advertise the victory on their coinage. The hare is an animal sacred to the god Pan, who had a temple in Messana and was widely worshipped there. The dolphin below the hare harks back to the original name of Messana, Zankle ("sickle"), so named for it's crescent-shaped harbor, of which the leaping dolphin's arched shape became a visual allegory.
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