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, Pella
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 325 BC - 315 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 17.19 g |
| 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 | Head of the deified Herakles facing right, wearing the Nemean lion scalp headdress, the jaws of the pelt framing the face with the forepaws knotted at the throat. The portrait is rendered in high relief with fine naturalistic modeling characteristic of early Macedonian die work. A dotted border frames the design at the coin's periphery. |
|---|---|
| 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 |
Price 241 places this issue among the earlier Pella tetradrachms struck in Alexander's name, beginning during his lifetime and continuing under the regency administrations following his death in 323 BC. The Pella mint was the Argead heartland — the royal seat — and its output during this window reflects the enormous logistical machinery Alexander built to pay his armies, drawing on bullion looted from the Persian treasuries at Persepolis and Susa. Estimates suggest those Persian reserves amounted to something near 180,000 talents of silver and gold, an influx so vast it fundamentally altered coin production across the eastern Mediterranean.
Dies from this period at Pella show closer stylistic affinity to the original Lysippan workshop conventions than later successor issues drifting toward regional interpretations.