Hexas

Messana's coinage of this period reflects the city's turbulent politics following the expulsion of the Samian mercenaries and the refoundation of the polis under Anaxilas of Rhegion, who controlled the Strait of Messina and leveraged that chokepoint aggressively against Carthaginian and Greek rivals alike. The hexas, worth one-twelfth of a litra, circulated at the extreme low end of the bronze-equivalent silver denomination system developed in Sicily — a system peculiar to the island and largely without parallel in the Aegean Greek world.

At 0.07 g, individual dies wore rapidly and survival is poor. The SNG ANS 325 variety designation flags meaningful die divergence within the type.