Messana
Tetradrachm circa 488-481, AR 17.32 g. Lion's mask facing. Rev. ΜΕ – SSΕ –Ν – Ι – ΟΝ Calf head l. Rizzo pl. XXV, 7. Jameson 644. SNG Ashmolean 1824 (this obverse die). Gillet 459. SNG ANS 312. Gielow 93. Caltabiano 2.1 (this coin).
Very rare and in unusual condition for this difficult issue. Old cabinet tone and very fine

Ex Hess/Leu 27 March 1956, 118; Leu 22, 1979, 26 and Morton and Eden 51, 2011, Exceptional ancient Greek coins, 39 sales.
In 488/7 BC, the Chalkidian Greek settlers of Zankle in northern Sicily called for other Greek colonists to join them in establishing a new settlement further down the coast at Kale Akte. They were joined by a group of Samian aristocrats fleeing punishment at the hands of the Persian authorities. However, while making their way to Sicily, the Samians were met by Anaxilos, the tyrant of Rhegion, who warned them that the Zanklians were away campaigning against the Sicels and that the Samians could easily take Zankle for themselves. When the Zanklians discovered this perfidy they called in support from Hippokrates, the tyrant of Gela. However, when he arrived on the scene, he did not recapture the city, but instead negotiated the division of Zanklian territory between himself and the Samians! The Samians possessed the city for eight years until at last Anaxilos tired of their presence and crossed from Rhegion to drive them out of Zankle. Having taken possession of the city, he refounded it as Messana in honor of his Peloponnesian origins in Messenia. The city remained under the control of Anaxilos and his successors in the Rhegine tyranny until a revolution involving returned Zanklian exiles overthrew the Anaxilid in 461 BC. This very tetradrachm belongs to the early period of Anaxilos’ rule over Messana and features the same lion mask and calf head types that were produced at Rhegion.