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Dekadrachm / 5 Shekels - Alexander III Babylon
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
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| Year | 327 BC - 323 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | BMC Greek#61, HGC 3.1#922 |
| Obverse description | Dynamic battle scene rendered in high relief depicts Alexander the Great mounted on his horse Bucephalus, charging to the right across a ground line. The king is shown in full Macedonian military panoply — wearing a crested helmet and cuirass — thrusting a long sarissa lance toward a rearing war elephant at right, upon which an Indian mahout and warrior are engaged in combat. A second mounted Macedonian cavalryman attacks from the left, also wielding a lance against the elephant. The composition captures the dramatic energy of the Indian campaigns in a masterfully engraved scene characteristic of the Babylon mint's finest workshop. |
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| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
These massive silver pieces were struck at Babylon almost certainly to pay Alexander's troops following the Indian campaigns — the denomination itself was calculated to match five Phoenician shekels, making disbursement across the multilingual, multi-ethnic army logistically straightforward. The weight standard draws on the Babylonian rather than Attic tradition, a deliberate accommodation to eastern monetary practice that Alexander adopted as he pushed deeper into Persia and beyond.
Relatively few obverse and reverse die combinations are known, suggesting a concentrated burst of production rather than sustained mint activity. The series terminates abruptly at Alexander's death in 323 BC.