The First Gold Coin of Sicily

Triton XIX, Lot: 2017. Estimate $20000. Sold for $27500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Messana. 455-451 BC. AV Dilitron (10mm, 1.43 g, 5h). The nymph Messana, holding kentron in left hand, reins in both, driving slow biga of mules right; in exergue, leaf right / Hare springing right; MESSENIO-N (Ss retrograde) around. Caltabiano 321.3 (D140/R132 – this coin); SNG ANS –; SNG Lloyd –; Rizzo pl. XXVI, 9 (same dies). Good VF, minor flat strike at high points. Extremely rare, one of three listed by Caltabiano, and the only example in CoinArchives.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Triton XIII (5 January 2010), lot 41; Münzen und Medaillen AG 76 (19 September 1991), lot 674; Sternberg XVII (9 May 1986), lot 56.

This coin is a true enigma, since it is difficult to connect its issue to any specific historical event. The similar use of the curved retrograde sigmas in the ethnic as well as the style of the leaf in the exergue of the obverse links this coin to Caltabiano Series VII tetradrachms whose production ended in 450 BC. Carmen Arnold-Biucchi dated the beginning of this tetradrachm series (and consequently this gold issue) to 461 BC, a date which Caltabiano reduced by a decade.

As such rare gold issues of Magna Graecia and Sicily tend to be struck only as a military necessity, the purpose of this extremely rare dilitron issue must be some war in which Messana was involved. One intriguing possibility involves Douketios, a local Sicel leader who, according to Diodoros Siculus (11.76.3, 78.5, 88.6, 91.1), took advantage of the political vacuum caused by the creation of the Fifth Democracy in Syracuse to establish a state on the eastern portion of the island. Beginning in 461 BC and continuing until his death in 440 BC, Douketios expanded his influence from his base of operations in the rugged hill country northwest of Syracuse by taking advantage of the numerous inter city rivalries. In 461 BC, he sided with Syracuse against Katane, helping to capture the city and absorbing half of its territory. By 453/2 BC, he had not only united much of the Sicilian interior under his rule, but he had also founded an important new Sicel city, Palike, in the vicinity of Mt. Aitna. Douketios’ expansionist policies, however, began to cause alarm and uneasiness among the other city-states, chief among them Akragas and Syracuse, which allied against him in 451 BC, and it is possible that this coin was struck in order to pay for Messana’s part in supporting that alliance. When Douketios subsequently took refuge in Syracuse, thereby precipitating a diplomatic conundrum for the Democracy, Syracuse cannily sent him to Corinth, their mother city. In 448/7 BC, however, Douketios escaped and returned to Sicily where he again rose to power, directing his attention to the northern part of the island. There he founded a city, Kale Akte, or “Fair Promontory”, made up of not only Sicel settlers, but also Corinthians. While expanding his power in the area, he died in 440 BC.