Tetradrachm - Lysimachus In the name of Alexander III, Sardis

Lysimachus began striking coins in Alexander's name rather than his own during the early decades after the Macedonian's death — a deliberate political calculation, not administrative inertia. The Sardis mint had been operating under various Diadochi successors since Alexander's campaigns, and retaining the conqueror's name lent legitimacy that Lysimachus, one of Alexander's bodyguards turned king, still needed in the 290s BC. He would not issue coins bearing his own portrait until around 297–296 BC, making this Sardis emission among the transitional pieces produced just as that shift was occurring.