Tetradrachm

Katane was a Sicilian Greek colony originally founded by Chalkidian settlers in the mid-eighth century BC, but the city's numismatic identity was violently interrupted when Hieron I of Syracuse forcibly expelled its population around 476 BC, resettled it with Dorian colonists, and renamed it Aitna. The original Katanean citizens were driven to Leontinoi. When Hieron died in 467 BC and his successor's authority collapsed, the displaced population reclaimed their city and expelled the Dorian settlers in turn — and it is precisely this restoration that gives this tetradrachm its historical footing, struck by a community reasserting its civic existence through coinage.

The SNG Copenhagen and De Luynes specimens remain the standard reference points for die attribution in this early post-restoration series.