SICILY. Messana. Ca. 425-413 BC. AR tetradrachm (25mm, 17.21 gm, 6h) NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style. MEΣΣ-ANA (retrograde and inverted), Nymph Messana, holding kentron and reins, driving biga of mules walking right; two dolphins confronted in exergue / MEΣ-Σ-A-N-IO-N, hare springing right; dolphin leaping right below. Caltabiano Series XIV, 536. HGC 2, 792. Crisply struck from fresh, fine style dies. From the Paramount Collection 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 two dolphins seen nose-to-nose in the exergue likely refer to a military alliance with Syracuse. 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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