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Stater - Alexander III Babylon
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 325 BC - 323 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Athena facing right, wearing a crested Corinthian helmet adorned with a sphinx on the bowl. The portrait is rendered in the Hellenistic style characteristic of the Macedonian royal coinage, with fine sculptural detail to the facial features and helmet decoration. The field is plain, with the design occupying the full flan. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Nike (Victory) standing left, her wings spread, holding a wreath extended in her right hand and a stylis (ship's sternpost) in her left hand. The legend ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ appears in the right field, identifying the coin as issued in the name of Alexander. A monogram and the letter M are visible in the lower left field, below the left wing, serving as mint control marks identifying the Babylon mint. |
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| Additional information |
Struck at the Babylon mint during the final two years of Alexander's life, these staters were almost certainly produced to pay the Macedonian army deep inside the Persian empire — soldiers who had just mutinied at the Hyphasis River and forced the greatest military campaign in ancient history to reverse course. The Babylon mint was operating at extraordinary volume during this period, drawing on bullion seized from Persepolis and Susa.
Price 3594 is attributable by its specific control marks, the classification system established by Martin Price in his 1991 corpus remaining the essential reference for separating Babylon issues from the dozen other mints striking identical types simultaneously.