Hexas

Messana's hexas represents the smallest fractional unit struck at the mint during the years immediately following the city's refoundation by Anaxilas of Rhegion, who expelled the original Zanclaean population around 488 BC and resettled the site with Messenians from the Peloponnese. Fractions this small served real commercial needs in a port economy where fish, oil, and small goods changed hands daily. The catalogued references — Caltabiano 280 and Buceti 22 — place this among a tightly documented series, though surviving examples are rare simply because coins of this size were easily lost and rarely recovered intact.