Hemilitra

Syracuse struck silver fractions throughout the fifth century to facilitate small transactions in a port economy where bronze coinage had not yet filled that role. The hemilitra — one-twelfth of a litra — occupied the lowest practical denomination in silver, and surviving examples are frequently found in hoards alongside larger denominations rather than showing the heavy abrasion one would expect from daily market use.

Boehringer 636 falls within the period bracketed by the expulsion of the Syracusan tyrants in 466 and the rise of Dionysius I, decades of democratic governance that produced some of the finest engraving in the ancient world.