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Æ Half Unit - Alexander III
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 336 BC - 323 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 4.69 g |
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| Obverse description | Youthful male head facing right, widely identified as Herakles or the young Alexander III himself assimilated to the hero, rendered with short, tightly curled hair swept back from the forehead in vigorous stylized locks. The facial features are finely modeled with a straight nose, slightly parted lips, and a rounded chin characteristic of the Macedonian court workshop tradition. The portrait is contained within a beaded border that frames the entire field. No legend appears on the obverse. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Struck during the reign that redrew the boundaries of the known world, this bronze was everyday currency for soldiers, merchants, and subjects across an empire stretching from Greece to the Punjab. Alexander's bronze issues served the logistical machinery of constant campaigning — payroll, provisioning, local markets — while his silver tetradrachms handled larger transactions. The type catalogued under Price 340 belongs to a series produced at multiple Macedonian and Asian mints simultaneously, a deliberate decentralization that kept coin supply moving with the army.
Dating individual pieces within the 336–323 BC window is difficult without die study; Alexander's bronze types continued posthumously under the successors well into the third century.