116, Lot: 66. Estimate $300. Sold for $281. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Zankle-Messana. Circa 500 BC. AR Hemitartemorion (?) (6mm, 0.07 g). Dolphin swimming left within sickle-shaped harbor / Nine part incus square with scallop shell in center. Gielow 81; SNG ANS -. VF, toned. Very rare denomination.

From the Tony Hardy Collection.

The colony originally called Zankle, meaning sickle after the shape of its harbour, was founded by Cumaean and Euboean settlers in the eighth century BC on the straits of Messina. It prospered, founding colonies at Mylae and Himera, but was overshadowed by Rhegion, whose tyrant, Anaxilas, seized it in 490/89. Samian and Messenian settlers arrived in 486 and changed the name of the city to Messene.