Tetradrachm

Messana's coinage of this period reflects the city's precarious position during the later stages of the Peloponnesian War. The Athenian defeat at Syracuse in 413 BC reordered Sicilian politics sharply, and Messana — which had refused the Athenians entry to its harbor during that campaign — found itself navigating Syracusan dominance with limited leverage. Coinage was one of the few instruments of civic assertion available.

Caltabiano 604 is among the more carefully documented dies in the Messanian sequence, with the SNG ANS 369 specimen frequently cited as a reference example for the type's die study.