Onkia

Lipara — modern Lipari, largest of the Aeolian Islands — was a Cnidian Greek colony that operated with unusual autonomy in the western Mediterranean, funding itself partly through a state-organized system of piracy against Etruscan shipping. The city's bronze coinage, including this onkia, was among the earliest municipal bronze issues in the Greek west, predating the widespread adoption of bronze as a fiduciary currency on the mainland by several decades.

The CNS (Corpus Nummorum Siculorum) classification places this piece among a small, well-defined group. Liparan bronzes of this period are notoriously difficult to attribute with precision due to limited die studies.