Finding the dating of coinage is always a difficult process. In describing the imagery on the dekadrachm from Syracuse, Keith Rutter recounts that the armor was labelled "athla" and could be interpreted as "prizes" awarded during the festival of Asinarian which celebrated the first anniversary of the victory over the Athenians in September 412 BC. Sir Arthur Evans was the first to posit this idea in 1891. It is also discussed in Plutarch (Vit. Nic. 28). This theory was disputed later by research done by G.K. Jenkins in 1961 based on hoard evidence. The issue apparently being that if the dating was such that Evans suggested then there would have been very little silver left for the reign of the tyrant Dionysius I, from whose reign this coin was likely struck. Dionysius is known for expending vast amounts in order to support his military campaigns and would have likely issued more of the dekadrachms than previously suggested by earlier scholars. This dating held until 1987 when yet again the dating was challenged by M. Caccamo Caltabiano based on stylistic arguments. She pushed the dating of the decadrachms back to c. 412-409 and suggested that they were associated with a Syracusan naval expedition led by Hermocrates in 412, in order to continue that campaign against the Athenians in the Aegean. This argument was again disputed by academics based on the historical accounts which suggested that Hermocrates had trouble securing funding as it was from Tissaphernes, the paymaster at the time, and was beset by financial issues. Striking large denomination silver coinage is rather unlikely.

In Rutter's article (found in Mediterranean studies in honor of R. Ross Holloway, published 2009), he points to two hoards which support the dating of the dekadrachm more clearly to the time period of the late fifth century BC during the reign of Dionysos I. These two hoards, the Naro and the Ognina hoards both support the conclusion of a later start for the dekadrachm.