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Tetradrachm - Demetrius Poliorcetes In the name of Alexander III, Salamis
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 301 BC - 300 BC |
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| Value | Tetradrachm (4) |
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| Obverse description | Youthful, beardless head of Heracles facing right, wearing the Nemean lion-skin headdress, the scalp covering the crown and the forepaws knotted beneath the chin. The modelling is rendered in the vigorous Hellenistic style characteristic of the Alexander-type coinage, with deeply incised facial features and naturalistic treatment of the lion pelt. The flan is irregular, as typical of struck coinage of this period, with the design well centred within the circular field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Struck at Salamis in Cyprus immediately following Demetrius Poliorcetes' naval victory over Ptolemy I at the Battle of Salamis in 306 BC, this issue belongs to a mint that Demetrius controlled only briefly and tenuously. He issued coinage in Alexander's name as a legitimizing fiction — his own father Antigonus had proclaimed both of them kings in the wake of that victory, yet invoking Alexander's authority remained politically expedient in the eastern Mediterranean.
By 300 BC the Antigonid position in Cyprus was already deteriorating. Ptolemy would retake the island within a few years.