I purchased a silver drachm coin - Alexander III - with Zeus holding a staff with a serpant coiled around it on the back of the coin and can't find this coin on the net. Is this an Alexander III coin ?
I can not scan the coin at this time. I can tell you this coin was sold as a silver drachm, dated 336-323 bc, obverse - head of hercules wearing lions scalp, reverse - zeus enthroned holding sceptre and minted during the reign of Alexander III. I hope this information is helpful...
1. Where did you look? I just search CoinArchives and Wildwinds and also did not find a coin like this. 2. However, David Sear's Greek Coins and their Values, vol 2 does list catalog number 6750 "rev. serpent in field to l., and AΩ monogram beneath throne." Note that this is an issue of Phillip III Arrhideaus 323-317, not a lifetime issue of Alexander. Dealers often date any coin with a Herakles/Alexander by the lifetime of Alexander, regardless of when it was actually struck. Sellers typically do not invest the time in careful attribution that buyers do. There are other standard catalogs, including Martin J. Price's Coins of the Macedonians, as well as Alexander's Drachm Mints, a two-volume work by Margaret Thompson., which was only a beginning, never completed. 3. The coinage of Alexander -- during his lifetime and thereafter, alike -- is broad, deep, and complex at the detail level. Even when the "mintmark" or other marks on the reverse seem familiar, we do not know what they mean. For instance, the Bee is often associated with Ephesus, but a Bee mintmark might mean something other than that the coin was struck at Ephesus. 4. "Buy the book before you buy the coin." So far, we do have an attribution, perhaps to Sear. That no coins like this appear on WildWinds or CoinArchives is not a condemnation, but neither does it instill confidence. Please don't tell us that the seller has 610 feedbacks and a 100% rating and lives in Bulgaria.
Did they provide any catalog numbers? Who was the seller? How long have you been collecting ancients? What made you buy this coin, besides pity for Colin Farrell's career after Daredevil?
Thank you for your research. I will look at Sear's catalog. The coin necklace was a gift. If it was not minted during the reign of Alexander,I will still love it. I enjoy reading the history. Thank you again
You need to either upload a picture or, not quite as useful, better describe this coin on order to have it attributed. Look at the reverse. Is the serpent really coiled around the staff that Zeus is holding? I'm not aware of this happening with Alexander coins. Or is the serpent or snake beneath Zeus's throne or to the left of his legs? Michael said that some drachms of Philip III's, Alexander son, depict a serpent on the reverse, but so do some of Alexander's drachms as well, from several different cities. The way to distinguish coins of Alexander III from coins of Philip III is by the inscription, which is also on the reverse but that may be partly off it or difficult to read, depending on how well the coin was struck and how worn it is. If the first two letters of the inscription or one of the two words in the inscription if it consists of two words are legible and look like AA (actually A and a letter that looks like an upside down triangle similar to an A), this would indicate it's a coin of Alexander or a coin minted in his name after his death (still considered an Alexander coin).
