Litra

Messana's copper coinage of the 340s–330s BC falls squarely within the city's period of Mamertine pressure from the north and shifting alliances with Syracuse and Carthage. The litra denomination itself was a Sicilian invention — a weight standard adapted from the indigenous pre-Greek population and absorbed into the Greek monetary system as bronze coinage displaced silver for everyday transactions across the island.

Timoleon's campaigns against Carthage beginning in 344 BC reshaped every Sicilian mint's output, including Messana's.