Catalog
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| Issuer | Kings of Thrace |
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| Year | 297 BC - 281 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Diademed head of the deified Alexander III the Great facing right, rendered in fine Hellenistic style with flowing curly hair and the distinctive curving horn of Ammon emerging from behind the ear, affirming his divine status as son of Zeus-Ammon. The portrait is idealized yet powerful, with sharply defined facial features including a prominent brow, straight nose, and slightly parted lips. The royal diadem encircles the head, its ends trailing behind the neck. The flan is irregular, as is typical of hammered Hellenistic coinage of this period. |
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| Reverse description | Athena Nikephoros seated left upon a throne, her right hand extended forward holding a small winged Nike who faces left, and her left arm resting upon a large round shield at her side. A long transverse spear is visible in the background behind her figure. The legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ runs around the field, reading 'of King Lysimachus.' A ΠY monogram appears in the inner left field as a mint control mark, and an EM monogram is placed in the exergue below the ground line. |
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| Additional information |
Lysimachus struck these gold staters not in his own image but in that of the deified Alexander the Great — a calculated political move to legitimize his rule over territories he had seized following the fragmentation of Alexander's empire after Ipsus in 301 BC. The mint at Alexandreia Troas was itself a Lysimachean foundation, established in part to consolidate control over the strategically vital Hellespont crossing. Lysimachus was killed at the Battle of Corupedium in 281 BC, ending his kingdom entirely, which gives this issue a hard terminus that tightly brackets its production window.