Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 288. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $450. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Zankle-Messana. Under Samian Rule. Circa 493-488 BC. AR Diobol (1.07 gm). Facing lion's scalp / Prow of a Samaina left. Clain-Stefanelli, "On Some Fractional Silver Coinages of Sicily and Magna Graecia during the Fifth Century B.C.," RBN CXXXIII (1987), pg. 49, pl. VIII, fig. 5-6, 5-8; SNG ANS 309 var. (Corinthian helmet before prow). VF, toned, stress crack in flan. Very rare. ($300)

From the Tony Hardy Collection.

In 493 BC Zankle invited a group of Samian refugees to settle nearby after Samos fell to the Persians. The Samians chose instead to seize the undefended city itself, at the behest of Anaxilas of Rhegion. Upon doing so, the Samians betrayed Anaxilas, and allied themselves with Hippocrates of Gela. Around 488 BC, Anaxilas suppressed the Samian rulers, seized Zankle, and resettled it with colonists from Peloponnesian Messenia. In honor of their loyalty, Anaxilas renamed the city Messana, after their homeland.