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Tetradrachm In the name of Alexander III, Messembria
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 250 BC - 175 BC |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Reverse description | Zeus Aëtophoros enthroned left on a high-backed throne, his body draped, holding an eagle aloft in his extended right hand and a long vertical scepter in his left. The legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ runs along the right and lower margins of the field. To the left of the throne, a Corinthian helmet facing right appears above the civic monogram ΖΩ, serving as the control symbol and mint identifier for the Thracian city of Messembria. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ ΖΩ (Translation: King Alexander (III, the Great)) |
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| Additional information |
Messembria — the Greek colonial city on the Black Sea coast of Thrace, modern Nesebar in Bulgaria — struck posthumous Alexandrine tetradrachms well into the second century BC, long after the Macedonian kingdom itself had fragmented. These issues were not Macedonian state coinages but autonomous civic productions, minted under the city's own authority using the universally trusted Alexandrine type as a commercial currency for Black Sea trade networks. Price 991 is among the later Messeimbrian issues, identifiable by its specific monograms and control marks that distinguish it from the dozens of other mints producing identical-looking coins across the Hellenistic world.