After doing a lot of browsing on the internet, the coin matches the description I found below. I have seen the same images on something called a
stater. This appears to be a
Tetradrachm but it only weighs 16 oz not 17.2 oz. It is approximately 23mm in
diameter. I haven't been able to find another one on the web to confirm that this design actually exists as a
Tetradrachm. Do they? Are they hard to find?
Excerpt:
The most
ancient coins with the
legend MESSENION are in all probability to be dated from the year of
his occupation, and thus mark the first
act by which the new name of city was publicly adopted.
Zancle changed its name to Messene, as commonly held, in the third or fourth year of the LXXI Olympiad (494-B. C.), and adopted on its coinage the
type of Samos, the mask of a
lion, facing, and the bull's
head in profile
