Tetradrachm

Gela, founded by Rhodian and Cretan colonists in the early seventh century, was among the most powerful cities in Sicily before Akragas and Syracuse eclipsed it. The tetradrachms of this precise period — roughly contemporary with Gelon's descendants losing their grip on regional dominance — were produced by engravers working in a tradition heavily influenced by Syracusan die-cutting, yet the Gelan series maintained a distinct local iconographic program that Jenkins catalogued with unusual care given the relatively small surviving corpus.

Jenkins 398–399 places these dies within a tight stylistic cluster. The city would be largely destroyed by Carthaginian forces in 405 BC.