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Drachm - Alexander III Sardis
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
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| Year | 334 BC - 323 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Youthful bare-chested bust of the deified Heracles facing right, his beardless countenance rendered in fine Hellenistic style with idealized, slightly portrait-like features. The hero is clad in the Nemean lion skin headdress, with the scalp drawn over the crown and the forepaws knotted loosely at the throat, the mane rendered in bold, undulating relief. A beaded border frames the design at the periphery of the flan. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Struck at Sardis — the former Lydian royal capital and one of the first mints Alexander activated after crossing into Asia Minor in 334 BC — this drachm belongs to the opening phase of the eastern campaign, before the vast Persian treasury at Persepolis had been seized and redistributed. Sardis surrendered without a fight, giving Alexander immediate access to an established mint infrastructure that had been producing coinage under Achaemenid authority for decades.
Price 2571 places this among the earlier Sardis issues, distinguished by specific control mark combinations documented in Martin Price's 1991 corpus.