Onkia

Rhegion, the Greek colony at the toe of Italy, occupied one of the ancient world's most strategically fraught positions — close enough to Sicily that its political fortunes rose and fell with events across the strait. The onkia, the smallest unit of the Sicilian bronze system, was introduced at Rhegion during a period when the city was rebuilding its civic identity after Anaxilas's tyranny ended in 476 BC and the democracy was restored. Bronze small change of this fraction rarely survived in quantity; it circulated hard among the poorest transactions and was frequently lost.