These massive silver pieces were almost certainly minted at Babylon to commemorate Alexander's Indian campaign — specifically the battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC, where his forces defeated Porus and his war elephants. They were likely distributed as donatives to officers and senior soldiers rather than entering general circulation, which explains why survivors tend to appear in dramatically better condition than the tetradrachms issued alongside them.
Fewer than a hundred specimens are known across all collections. The Porus medallion series sits at the intersection of coinage and honorific object — never quite either.
These massive silver pieces were almost certainly minted at Babylon to commemorate Alexander's Indian campaign — specifically the battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC, where his forces defeated Porus and his war elephants. They were likely distributed as donatives to officers and senior soldiers rather than entering general circulation, which explains why survivors tend to appear in dramatically better condition than the tetradrachms issued alongside them.
Fewer than a hundred specimens are known across all collections. The Porus medallion series sits at the intersection of coinage and honorific object — never quite either.