Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Tetradrachm - Alexander III Damascus
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 330 BC - 320 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Youthful head of Herakles facing right, portrayed with idealized features in the Lysippan tradition, wearing the Nemean lion skin headdress with the scalp drawn over the crown and the forepaws knotted at the throat. The finely modeled face displays a slightly open mouth and strong jaw, rendered in high relief against a flat field. The design is enclosed within a beaded border. The portrait carries the characteristic idealized likeness associated with Alexander III. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ ΔΑ (Translation: (in the name and type of) Alexander (III, the Great)) |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Damascus came under Macedonian control following Alexander's decisive victory at Issus in 333 BC, and the city's mint was activated shortly after to help finance the ongoing eastern campaign. Moving vast quantities of Persian silver — much of it seized from Darius III's war chest at Damascus itself — into standardized coinage was a logistical and political priority, not an afterthought.
Price 3205 is attributable to the Damascus mint by specific die linkage and style analysis. Martin Price's 1991 corpus remains the standard reference for separating the output of individual mints in this period, a task complicated by Alexander's deliberate policy of issuing uniform coinage across dozens of operating mints simultaneously.