Tetradrachm In the name of Alexander III, Odessos

Odessos, the Greek colony on the western Black Sea coast (modern Varna, Bulgaria), struck posthumous Alexandrine tetradrachms well over two centuries after Alexander's death — a practice that had less to do with reverence than with commercial pragmatism. By the first century BC, these coins functioned as a trusted regional trade currency across Thrace and the Pontic littoral, their Alexander types guaranteeing acceptance in markets that distrusted local civic issues. Price 1197 is among the later Odessian emissions, produced during a period when the city was navigating increasing pressure from both Mithridates VI's expanding Pontic sphere and Roman commercial interests pushing into the Black Sea region.