Holed Litra of Enna

[Lelouch]

Ciao e tutti,

I have recently acquired a holed litra of Enna (more accurately Henna)

 

Very interesting is that for such a rare die, I believe Campana records 2 obverses and 2 reverses (though I believe Campana had deleted his CNAI from Academia.edu please let me know as this link https://www.academia.edu/26923426/CNAI_SICILIA_ENNA_440_36_a_C_ which used to work no longer does), many examples of this series are holed.

In "Manganaro, Giacomo (1999). Ancora sul mikron kerma siceliota, in: Revue Belge de Numismatique et de Sigillographie Vol: CXLV, La Société royale de numismatique de Belgique, Brussels, pp. 61-68." Manganaro ascribes them to a cultic function especially as we see the decidedly religious figure of Demeter worshiping. Admittedly he describes all of the holed litra as having a cultic function (as I think older scholars often presumed a lot of things were cultic/ritualistic), but this must be certainly true for Enna due to the amount of samples we have.

Manganaro lists another 5 examples, for a total of 6 including mine.

1. Lelouch Collection #152– 0.59 g, 14 moment
2. British Museum inv. 1946,0101.931– 0.67 g https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1946-0101-931
3. American Numismatic Society inv. 1987.32.104 (SNG ANS 3 1322) – 0.38g https://numismatics.org/collection/1987.32.104
4. Private Collection (illustrated in Manganaro Pl. VIII-IX, 1/1a) – 0.62g

5. Well Known Italo-Swiss Collection– unpublished, documented by Manganaro (1999) (I am curious does anyone know who the Well Known Coll. italo-svizzera is?)
6. Baron Vincenzo Cammarata Collection at Enna– documented by Manganaro (1999)

I truly believe some event or some actual ritual must have caused these specimens to be holed as for such a rare die to have so many holed it is improbable to be from a more normal use.
As well all the holes seem to have been intentionally pierced to avoid the actual body of Demeter (though some slightly cut her arms).

It really is very intriguing, but unfortunately all we can do is just speculate.

Any additional specimens or further information would be greatly appreciated; I would also be very interested to hear of other holed Sicilian fractional issues. 

Modificato giovedì alle 18:36 da Lelouch

[skubydu]

Il 26/02/2026 alle 17:55, Lelouch dice:

Ciao e tutti,

I have recently acquired a holed litra of Enna (more accurately Henna)

 

Very interesting is that for such a rare die, I believe Campana records 2 obverses and 2 reverses (though I believe Campana had deleted his CNAI from Academia.edu please let me know as this link https://www.academia.edu/26923426/CNAI_SICILIA_ENNA_440_36_a_C_ which used to work no longer does), many examples of this series are holed.

In "Manganaro, Giacomo (1999). Ancora sul mikron kerma siceliota, in: Revue Belge de Numismatique et de Sigillographie Vol: CXLV, La Société royale de numismatique de Belgique, Brussels, pp. 61-68." Manganaro ascribes them to a cultic function especially as we see the decidedly religious figure of Demeter worshiping. Admittedly he describes all of the holed litra as having a cultic function (as I think older scholars often presumed a lot of things were cultic/ritualistic), but this must be certainly true for Enna due to the amount of samples we have.

Manganaro lists another 5 examples, for a total of 6 including mine.

1. Lelouch Collection #152– 0.59 g, 14 moment
2. British Museum inv. 1946,0101.931– 0.67 g https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1946-0101-931
3. American Numismatic Society inv. 1987.32.104 (SNG ANS 3 1322) – 0.38g https://numismatics.org/collection/1987.32.104
4. Private Collection (illustrated in Manganaro Pl. VIII-IX, 1/1a) – 0.62g

5. Well Known Italo-Swiss Collection– unpublished, documented by Manganaro (1999) (I am curious does anyone know who the Well Known Coll. italo-svizzera is?)
6. Baron Vincenzo Cammarata Collection at Enna– documented by Manganaro (1999)

I truly believe some event or some actual ritual must have caused these specimens to be holed as for such a rare die to have so many holed it is improbable to be from a more normal use.
As well all the holes seem to have been intentionally pierced to avoid the actual body of Demeter (though some slightly cut her arms).

It really is very intriguing, but unfortunately all we can do is just speculate.

Any additional specimens or further information would be greatly appreciated; I would also be very interested to hear of other holed Sicilian fractional issues. 

 

Hai visto l esemplare sul Buceti? 
 

[skubydu]

Dr Busso 430 n.18

 

[Deinomenid]

On 2/26/2026 at 11:55 AM, Lelouch said:

I would also be very interested to hear of other holed Sicilian fractional issues. 

Completamente per caso, ho appena letto questo.

 

[Brennos2]

Il 26/02/2026 alle 17:55, Lelouch dice:

5. Well Known Italo-Swiss Collection– unpublished, documented by Manganaro (1999) (I am curious does anyone know who the Well Known Coll. italo-svizzera is?)

the Well Known Coll. italo-svizzera is Athos D. Moretti

the coin :

[Lelouch]

Grazie Skuby, Deinomenid, and Brennos,

I should add that I also have a non-holed Enna and Buceti, but thanks Skuby for the note.

And thanks Deinomenid. As always, we can probably only speculate about why the Syracusan was holed. I may create a list of my one as to all the holed coins of Sicily as it is very fascinating.

Thanks Brennos. I had actually been guessing the provenance might be the Moretti Collection. Apart from the coin you showed, I believe they should also have a holed specimen.

The Manganaro article I mentioned is here:
https://www.lelouch.net/library/manganaro-1999-ancora-sul-mikron-kerma-siceliota.dual.pdf
I included both my translation and the original. He seems to refer only to the holed specimens.

For Enna specifically, Manganaro already knew of five holed examples by 1998, which is quite a large number. No other issue seems to be known in comparable quantities, and the litra itself is very rare.

I believe the Cammarata collection and Manganaro’s own collection were later seized by the state, which may explain what happened to no. 4, if that piece is indeed Manganaro’s, and to no. 6 as well.

For completeness, I also managed to locate an archive of Campana. Interestingly, CNAI used to be available on Academia.edu but has since been removed.