Drachm - Lysimachus Mytilene

Lysimachus struck coinage in the name and types of Alexander III long after Alexander's death — a deliberate political claim to legitimacy rather than a straightforward commemorative gesture. This Mytilene issue dates to a particularly pressured phase of his reign, when Lysimachus was simultaneously managing Thracian frontier threats and maneuvering against Antigonus's successors for control of western Asia Minor. Mytilene, on Lesbos, had passed between Macedonian successors more than once, and the mint's output under Lysimachus was relatively limited compared to his continental mints at Lampsacus and Amphipolis.