>> Ancient Greek Coins - #Greek-29704
336-323 B.C. - Drachm
Coin Type : ANCIENT GREEK Date : 336-323 B. C.
Denomination : DRACHM Mint : COLOPHON
Ruler : ALEXANDER III, THE GREAT Metal :SILVER
Country : KINGDOM OF MACEDON Certificate Number: MD-29704
ALEXANDER III, THE GREAT SILVER DRACHM
Obverse: Head of Herakles facing to the right, wearing lion skin.
Reverse: Zeus enthroned facing to the left, holding eagle and scepter, to the right, "ALESANAPOY".
The reference used for this coin is The Coinage in the name of Alexander the Great and Philip Arrhidaeus by Martin J. Price.
Alexander III succeeded his father, Philip II, on the Macedonian throne. In a reign of only thirteen years he was able to accomplish military feats that stand unequaled to this day. By B. C. 330 he was already the acknowledged leader of an empire that covered a million square miles. Alexander was more than a military genius. He had studied as a pupil of Aristotle and was familiar not only with strategy and tactics, but mathematics and philosophy, art, literature and theater. At his untimely death at the age of thirty-two, he was King of the Greeks, Pharaoh of Egypt, ruler of Persia and King of Asia.
His coinage reflects the immense wealth he accumulated during his conquests. For his silver coinage, Alexander chose the universal types that would appeal not only to the Greeks but also throughout his empire. The obverse head of Herakles wearing the skin of a Nemean lion was a suitable type for the warrior king. Herakles had also appeared on earlier Macedonian issues, for it was through this hero that the Macedonian royal line could claim to be of truly Greek descent. In the east, this figure could be equally identified as the Phoenician Melqarth. The reverse type of Zeus enthroned, holding an eagle and scepter, marks a continuation of the depiction of Zeus on Philip’s coinage as well as marking Alexander’s claim to be leader of the Greek states. In addition, Zeus in this pose could be interpreted as the Cilician Baaltars and the Babylonian Marduk.
The coin was so universally recognized that the mintage of coins in the name of Alexander continued in various parts of the Greek world until late in the first Century B. C., some two hundred years after his death. There are over 4,000 mint symbols for silver coinage of Alexander the Great.
Colophon, ancient Ionian Greek city, was located several miles inland on the river Halesos, about 15 miles northwest of Ephesus in modern Turkey. The city prospered in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. principally by trade through its’ harbor at Notium. Colophon was ruled by a Timocracy (government based on wealth). It was the birthplace of the philosopher Xenophanes and the poet Antimachus, and claimed to be the birthplace of Homer. In the 3rd century B.C. the old city declined in favour of Notium (New Colophon).
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