Tetras

Lipara — the principal island of the Aeolian group off Sicily's northern coast — was a Cnidian colony with a peculiar monetary history. Bronze coinage here preceded most of the Greek world's adoption of the metal for currency, making issues from this period among the earliest civic bronze coinages struck anywhere in the Hellenic sphere. The city's relative isolation and control of the surrounding waters, including revenues from piracy tolerated or actively practiced against Etruscan shipping, funded a mint active well before bronze was considered a dignified monetary medium elsewhere.