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<p>[QUOTE="Terence Cheesman, post: 7843116, member: 86498"]For some weeks I have been getting up the nerve to discuss the drachms minted in the name of Alexander III from the mints of western Asia Minor. This is a large and significant coinage as most of the drachms offered up over the last 20+ years have been from this region. The question is of course just how many of these coins are minted during the lifetime of Alexander the Great and when did this coinage commence.</p><p> The first point is that it was very unlikely that this coinage started before 325 BC. The fundamental reason is that Alexander wished to present himself as a liberator of these cities and not a conqueror. Thus he would have very little incentive to force these cities into minting his coins. This changed when he returned from India. He was faced with some very serious expenditures, the first being the paying off the army which he was now disbanding and paying for the new armies he would need to continue with his world tour. By demonetizing the old Persian coinage, the cities involved would gain a profit minting the new coins. This would also have the effect of very quickly removing the old siglos coinage.</p><p> One of the problems associated with creating a chronology of the drachm coinage from this region is that there are essentially three basic poses for the image of Zeus Aetophoros seen on the reverse. They are in the most likely sequence of their appearance as follows. All the coins in the name and types of Alexander III from the mint of Miletos[ATTACH=full]1349594[/ATTACH]Group 1. Price 2088 Courtesy CNG In this image Zeus is depicted with his legs parallel. They are rather stiff. This image is in keeping with the depiction found on the earliest tetradrachms minted at Tarsus and Amphipolis.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1349595[/ATTACH]</p><p>Group 2 Price 2090 4.28 grms 18 mm Photo by W. Hansen In this image the foreleg of Zeus his left is pulled back. This group is rather hard to quantify as in some cases the foreleg is only slightly reverted and in others very much so. I have not seen many tetradrachms minted in this style and the few that I have seen come from this region. So this may be a local adaptation. If that is the case it commenced very quickly and spread very rapidly as many of the drachms are of this style. A case in point can be seen from two drachms minted at Lampsakos which were in CNG E Auction 498[ATTACH=full]1349598[/ATTACH]This coin is listed by Thompson as the first drachm minted at Lampsakos Control symbol Caduceus CNG comments that this is the first obverse die. As can be seen reverse image has parallel legs Courtesy CNG</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1349605[/ATTACH]Second issue Same obverse die Control symbol club The foreleg is already being pulled back. Courtesy CNG</p><p>Finally we come to</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1349614[/ATTACH]</p><p>Group 3 Price 2090 (again. Unusually Price does not differentiate between the two styles) In this image the rear foot of Zeus, his right is pulled back sharply. This image became the standard image found on the tetradrachm. This image can be first seen on tetradrachms minted at Sidon in 325 BC and the image spread rather slowly from there. Except from the mint of Sidon no coins with the back leg reverted can be safely attributed to the lifetime of Alexander. In fact the coins usually attributed to Amphipolis continued to mint tetradrachms where the image of Zeus has parallel legs well after 322 BC.</p><p> So in closing the presence of the Group 2 coinage complicates the problem of attempting to date this coinage. My guess is that the type is a local adaptation and may have started a short time after the first issues were struck.</p><p>Thank you [USER=99412]@PeteB[/USER] got a little mixed up.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Terence Cheesman, post: 7843116, member: 86498"]For some weeks I have been getting up the nerve to discuss the drachms minted in the name of Alexander III from the mints of western Asia Minor. This is a large and significant coinage as most of the drachms offered up over the last 20+ years have been from this region. The question is of course just how many of these coins are minted during the lifetime of Alexander the Great and when did this coinage commence. The first point is that it was very unlikely that this coinage started before 325 BC. The fundamental reason is that Alexander wished to present himself as a liberator of these cities and not a conqueror. Thus he would have very little incentive to force these cities into minting his coins. This changed when he returned from India. He was faced with some very serious expenditures, the first being the paying off the army which he was now disbanding and paying for the new armies he would need to continue with his world tour. By demonetizing the old Persian coinage, the cities involved would gain a profit minting the new coins. This would also have the effect of very quickly removing the old siglos coinage. One of the problems associated with creating a chronology of the drachm coinage from this region is that there are essentially three basic poses for the image of Zeus Aetophoros seen on the reverse. They are in the most likely sequence of their appearance as follows. All the coins in the name and types of Alexander III from the mint of Miletos[ATTACH=full]1349594[/ATTACH]Group 1. Price 2088 Courtesy CNG In this image Zeus is depicted with his legs parallel. They are rather stiff. This image is in keeping with the depiction found on the earliest tetradrachms minted at Tarsus and Amphipolis. [ATTACH=full]1349595[/ATTACH] Group 2 Price 2090 4.28 grms 18 mm Photo by W. Hansen In this image the foreleg of Zeus his left is pulled back. This group is rather hard to quantify as in some cases the foreleg is only slightly reverted and in others very much so. I have not seen many tetradrachms minted in this style and the few that I have seen come from this region. So this may be a local adaptation. If that is the case it commenced very quickly and spread very rapidly as many of the drachms are of this style. A case in point can be seen from two drachms minted at Lampsakos which were in CNG E Auction 498[ATTACH=full]1349598[/ATTACH]This coin is listed by Thompson as the first drachm minted at Lampsakos Control symbol Caduceus CNG comments that this is the first obverse die. As can be seen reverse image has parallel legs Courtesy CNG [ATTACH=full]1349605[/ATTACH]Second issue Same obverse die Control symbol club The foreleg is already being pulled back. Courtesy CNG Finally we come to [ATTACH=full]1349614[/ATTACH] Group 3 Price 2090 (again. Unusually Price does not differentiate between the two styles) In this image the rear foot of Zeus, his right is pulled back sharply. This image became the standard image found on the tetradrachm. This image can be first seen on tetradrachms minted at Sidon in 325 BC and the image spread rather slowly from there. Except from the mint of Sidon no coins with the back leg reverted can be safely attributed to the lifetime of Alexander. In fact the coins usually attributed to Amphipolis continued to mint tetradrachms where the image of Zeus has parallel legs well after 322 BC. So in closing the presence of the Group 2 coinage complicates the problem of attempting to date this coinage. My guess is that the type is a local adaptation and may have started a short time after the first issues were struck. Thank you [USER=99412]@PeteB[/USER] got a little mixed up.[/QUOTE]
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