Uncertain mint

100 Units (centesimae) late IV - III century BC, Æ 41 mm, 45.69 g. Laureate and bearded head of Tinia r.; in l. field, ?IC (mark of value). All within dotted border within laurel wreath. Rev. Incuse hippocamp r. within border of waves. EC 1. Vecchi IV, 24. SNG Firenze 644. Historia Numorum Italy 76.
Extremely rare, in exceptional condition for the issue, possibly the finest of only eight
specimens known. A bold portrait and a wonderful green patina,
encrustations on reverse, otherwise good very fine

From a Scandinavian private collection.
The obverse of this extremely rare and wonderfully preserved bronze coin depicts the Etruscan sky god Tinia on the obverse. He was roughly comparable to Roman Jupiter or Greek Zeus although he seems to have had some role as a protector of boundaries (like Roman Mercury or Greek Hermes) as well. He was the husband of Uni, the Etruscan equivalent of Roman Juno or Greek Hera, and the father of the hero Hercle, a version of Greek Heracles. Like Jupiter and Zeus, Tinia was known for his use of thunderbolts as a weapon. The reverse depicts an incuse hippocamp that recalls the earlier incuse reverse types used for the sixth-century BC silver issues of Greek colonies in Lucania and Bruttium like Croton, Poseidonia, Caulonia, and Metapontum.