The Coinage of Alexander the Great

Alexander III, son of Philip II, king of Macedonia and Olympias, was born in Pella in 356 B.C. One of the greatest conquerors in history, he dominated much of what was then the civilized world, driven by an endless ambition. After Philip’s death, in 336 B.C., the Macedonian state had reached hegemony over Greece, but yet the great enemy of the Greeks, Persia, remained strong and dangerous in the East. With the death of the Persian king Artaxerxes III in 338 B.C., and the succession of a much weaker Darius II in 336 B.C., the opportunity was ready for the young king to begin his incredible triumphal march of conquest. In the following thirteen years, through memorable campaigns, he fought, pacified and then unified a wide area stretching across Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Syria, Egypt, Babylonia, Suse, Persepolis, and even part of modern India.

It is commonly thought, as originally written by Plutarch, that unification was achieved partly through the means of coinage, which explains the spread of the Macedonian coinage in the fourth century BC. In a recent book, Le Rider (see Alexandre le Grand. Monnaies, finances et politique, Paris 2003) contests the usual denomination of “Imperial coinage” and the supposition that Alexander would have wished to impose a single coinage throughout his empire. He reminds us that the famous Alexander’s tetradrachms and staters are emphatically not the only coinage used during Alexander’s short reign and life. This coinage, once created, was not imposed on the West of Asia Minor: for example, Egypt seems not to have struck coins between 332 BC until shortly before Alexander’s death; Babylonia struck tetradrachms in the name of Mazaios; and Alexander does not seem to have created any mint east of the Tiger. Most places in the empire did not strike the coinage of Alexander, or did so only many years later: only Macedonia and Cilicia-Phenicia-Syria issued it after Alexander’s victories in Issos (autumn 333 BC), and Tyre (July 332 BC). Le Rider believes that as an astute politician, Alexander seems to have been content to continue with the coinage of his predecessors. The gold staters and silver tetradrachms of his father Philip II during his early reign, and the Persian darics and siglos after the death of Darius III in 330 B.C., continued to be trustworthy. This question of trust is one which may explain why some of his own successors, his half-brother Philip III and his son Alexander IV for example, would have supported the wider distribution and usage of Alexander’s coinage, which would have spread only after the death of its creator, surviving during several centuries!

Notes on the coinage:
One of the remarkable aspects of Alexander’s coinage is the impressive scale of emissions during his life and after his death on his name. His father, Philip II, had already struck an unprecedented number of gold staters, thanks to the conquest of the mining areas in the northern Greece. The types of Alexander’s coinage are uniform: on the gold the head of Athena on obverse and on reverse a standing Nike carrying a naval standard; on the silver the head of a young Herakles, for many a reference to the young king, and Zeus enthroned on reverse. Every coin bears Alexander’s name. The choice of Athena, the great supporter of the Greeks in the Trojan war, is linked to the new clash West versus East, where the goddess would serve once again as a protector against the Persian Empire. The Nike (the Greek word for “victory”) was the clear symbol of Alexander’s power both on land and sea. Zeus enthroned was another distinct symbol of supreme power, and its resemblance with the type on Cilician coins (with the seated god Baal) was meant to be understood also in Anatolia and Persia.

A selection of examples of Alexander's coinage is provided below for illustration. Please contact us to discuss buying or selling coins, or for further information.

NB Please note that images are not actual size.