Tetradrachm

Gela's gold issues of 405–406 BC were produced under extreme duress. The Carthaginian general Himilco had destroyed Selinus and Akragas and was advancing on Gela itself; the city would fall and be permanently abandoned within months of these coins being struck. Emergency gold coinage of this kind was almost certainly minted to pay mercenaries or fund the desperate defense coordinated — ultimately unsuccessfully — by the Syracusan general Dion. The city's population fled to Syracuse shortly after, never to return in any significant numbers.

Jenkins 494 is among the rarest of the Geloan series.