Ancients: A Soldier's Share of Alexander the Great's Plunder

This is a coin I've had for a while but haven't posted in a dedicated thread (and I recently re-photographed it which came out much nicer). This coin is a distater, twice the weight of the common staters. Post your other coins of Alexander the Great and let's see if we can get a denomination set in this thread!



Alexander the Great, born in the autumn of 356 BC and taught by the famous Aristotle, was one of the most successful military generals of all time, conquering a large part of Asia and ruling a kingdom that spanned from the Ionian sea to the Himalayas before he was thirty. In the year 336 BC, Alexander ascended the Macedonian throne after his father, Philip II. Two years later, he began his campaign against the Persians, whom he completely defeated. But this success wasn't enough for Alexander: sources tell us that he was motivated to outdo the mythological Hercules. The goddess Athena was the protector Hercules and other heroes, and Alexander adopted her image on his gold coinage, wearing a Corinthian helmet decorated with a coiled snake.

In addition to his prolific military prowess, one of Alexander's many achievements was the establishment of a single currency in his huge realm. These coins replaced the wide variety of local issues with an official, imperial coinage. Alexander the Great's conquering of the Persians produced a massive volume of gold bullion, plundered from their treasuries at Sardes, Susa, Persepolis, and Babylon. At the beginning of his reign in 336 BC, the Macedonian kingdom was in debt 500 silver talents. This was rectified when from the treasury of Susa alone, Alexander claimed 50,000 talents of silver and 40,000 talents of gold.

The significant influx of precious metals prompted him to strike the largest Greek gold coin issued up to that time: the gold distater. With a value of 40 silver drachms, it was likely used to pay Alexander's veteran soldiers who were awarded for their labors with a silver talent (6,000 drachms). This new denomination meant that a talent could be paid out as 120 gold distaters.

The daily wage of the average citizen was about two drachmas so these gold distaters were extremely valuable. This proved to be inconvenient for normal spending, so they were nearly all melted down after a relatively small mintage, causing their significant rarity relative to the high availability of the smaller staters which feature the same design.

The reverse is a representation of Alexander's victory, depicting Nike, the goddess of victory, holding a wreath (representing his success on land) and a stylis, the mast cross-arm of a ship (his success at sea). A thunderbolt is shown to her left, and below, the mint mark of Aigai, the old Macedonian capital which was eventually abandoned in the third century BC.

Distater, 336-323 B.C. Lifetime issue struck in Macedonia (Aigai). Head of Athena r. wearing Corinthian helmet decorated with coiled serpent, hair in tight ringlets. Rv. Nike standing l. holding stylis, thunderbolt to l., monogram to lower l. 17.23 grams. Price 191. Perfectly centered and well struck in high relief. Extremely Fine.

 

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Stunning, love the portrait. Gotta love some hefty gold.

 

Excellent coin for sure. Pretty hefty gold coin at 17.2g.

No Alexander the great coins yet.

 

Beautiful coin AJ. One I can only dream of. But I do have a couple of Alexander III coins, one silver and one base metal. They are not near the quality of your coin, but I will show them nonetheless.

ALEXANDER III AR Drachm
OBVERSE: Head of Herakles right in lionskin headdress
REVERSE: ALEXANDROU, Zeus Aetophoros seated left, holding eagle and sceptre. Forepart of Pegasos left in left field, X on W monogram beneath throne
Struck at Abydos 325-323 BC
4.2g, 17mm
Price 1505


ALEXANDER III AE Half Unit
OBVERSE: Gorgoneion in the center of a Macedonian shield
REVERSE: A Macedonian helmet; caduceus and NK monogram flanking below
Struck at Salamis mint under Nikokreon 323-315 BC
4.9g, 15mm
Price 3162

 

I only have a single lifetime issue coin of AtG. All my other coins are posthumous issues.

Alexander III The Great, Silver tetradrachm
Obv:- Head of (Alexander the Great as) Herakles right, wearing lion skin headdress knotted at base of neck
Rev:- ALEXANDROU, Zeus seated left, holding eagle in right hand and scepter in left, monogram and M below throne;
Price 3599 (same dies), Müller 67, 17.206g, 25.9mm, 255o, Babylon mint, lifetime issue, c. 325 - 323 B.C.;
obverse off-center;

 

Well of course you don't have just an ordinary ATG AV stater.

Just another stunning coin for your world-class collection.

Somehow I've failed to get a lifetime issue of Alexander the Great. Here are a couple in that style though.

A tetradrachm struck 295/4-291 BC by one of ATG's successors, Seleukos I Nicator. Seleukos I was an infantry general under Alexander the Great. Susa mint. One of my earliest ancient purchases, part of a small mixed lot of Hellenistic coins.


The next tetradrachm came much later. It was struck in Odessos, Thrace, ~125-70 BC, long after the death of Lysimachos. The city reverted to cranking out ATG-style coinage.

 

I have a Seleukos I Nikator tet. too if that is acceptable.

Seleucid Kingdom, Seleukos I, Silver tetradrachm
Obv:- Head of Herakles right, clad in lion head headdress
Rev:- BASILEWS SELEUKOU, Zeus enthroned left, holding Nike and scepter, monogram left;
Antioch mint, c. 300 B.C.;
Tef:- SNG Spaer 2, WSM 923, CSE 8
High relief.

 

Another "larger than life" coin, beautiful

Here's my "Alexander's"...

Alexander III the Great AR Tetradrachm
Babylon mint (331-325 BC).
Price -



Alexander III the Great AR Tetradrachm
Amphipolis mint (315-294 BC).
Price 481



Alexander III the Great AR Tetradrachm
Odessos mint (120-90 BC).
Price 1181



Alexander III the Great AR Drachm
Miletos mint (336-323).
Price 2090



Macedonia, Philip III Arrhidaios AE Unit
Miletos mint (323-319 BC).
Obv.: Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin.
Rev.: Bow in bow case and club; grain ear below. With the name and types of Alexander III ‘the Great’.
Price 2102.

 

The side view is fantastic!

 

Gives the impression that some of these Babylonian issues, with sculptural reliefs, were made to be looked at from every sides, not just obv. / rev..

 

Very Nice Gold.Joe, how take thoose pics.
appl

 

Some of you would guess I would post this one. It is an obol or 1/6 drachm which would then make it 1/160th of the OP distater. Obols are not as common as the larger silver because they were used up rather than hoarded by the potfull. I suspect this coin was spent a hundred times for every transaction involving a tetradrachm which was a lot of money in the day. Mine only weighs 0.66g compared to the theoretical 0.7 but it has a lot of porosity. Finding one in mint state will be hard.


Arados mint.

 

Alexander the Great, silver tetradrachm
Obv:- Head of Herakles right, wearing Nemean lion-scalp headdress
Rev:- ΑΛΕΞΑΝ∆ΡΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ, Zeus seated left, right leg drawn back, eagle in extended right, long scepter vertical behind in left, Corinthian helmet right over ΠΑ monogram in inner left field under arm;
Minted in Mesembria c. 275 - 225 B.C.
References:- Karayotov p. 80 and pl. VII, 41 (O7/R18); Price 992; Müller 436
17.000g, 31.6mm, 180o

 

Alexander the Great, silver tetradrachm
Obv:– Head of (Alexander the Great as) Herakles right, wearing lion skin headdress knotted at base of neck
Rev:– ALEXANDPOY, Zeus seated left, holding eagle in right hand and scepter in left, IA/F in left field
Minted in Phaselis mint. Civic issue, dated CY 11 (208/7 BC).
Reference:– Price 2849

 

Ho-hum, just another museum quality offering from AJ's collection, eh? (wow, congrats!!)

Sadly, my only Alex the Great "Lifetime" example is this very humble bronze baby (not nearly as sharp as Batman's sweet example) ...

Alexander III the Great AE19
336 - 323 BC
Diameter: 19 mm
Weight: 5.99 grams
Obverse: Head of Alexander as Herakles in Nemean lion scalp headdress to right
Reverse: Alexander between club and bow with bow case and quiver, cluster of grapes and monogram above
Other: a handsome coin, nicely centered with a pretty patina




... fantastic coins, fellas!

 

Thunderbolt in place of grapes and all elements rearranged - bowcase very different!

 

Awesome coins all!




Alexander III AR Tetradrachm. ‘Amphipolis’ mint. Struck under Kassander, circa 316-314 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin headdress / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; shield in left field, pellet-in-Π below throne. 17.1 g.

Price 136; Troxell, Studies, issue L8.

 

It does indeed! I'll need to take a closer look at the "third side" of some of my tetradrachms as well.

 

Congratulations AJ. This is another stunning coin. I love that there are details of the hair in the eye slits of the Corinthian helmet. The plumage on the helmet is wonderful as well.

I am curious, if these were potentially used to pay Alexander's troops how many varieties are known for the monograms. Also, do you know what that is behind Nike? Right behind her hair at ~1 o'clock. It doesn't look to be apart of her wing.

Nike also has some seriously long fingers. My sister loves to draw as a hobby and always complains about how much trouble she has with hands and fingers and it seems the die cutter has a similar problem.