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 In the name of Alexander III
| Issuer | Sinope (Paphlagonia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 230 BC - 200 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Attic drachm |
| 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 | Heroic head of Herakles in right profile, wearing the Nemean lion scalp headdress tied beneath the chin, rendered in fine Hellenistic style with curling locks escaping at the temples and nape. The facial features are boldly modelled with a strong jaw, prominent brow, and open eye, conveying youthful vigour. The lion's mane frames the face and drapes over the shoulder, with the forelegs knotted at the chest. The field is plain and the flan is well-centred, typical of posthumous Alexandrine coinage struck at Sinope. |
|---|---|
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Sinope's adoption of the Alexander-type tetradrachm decades after the conqueror's death reflects the city's shifting political allegiances during the Wars of the Diadochi and their aftermath. By the early third century, posthumous Alexander coinage had become essentially an international trade currency across the Black Sea littoral, and Sinope — already one of the most commercially active ports on the Pontic coast — issued under that convention rather than in its own civic types.
The Mektepini reference places this among a group attributed through die studies specific to the Sinopean mint. Control marks distinguishing local issues from the broader posthumous Alexander series are the primary basis for that attribution.