Lysimachos. 305-281 BC, Tetradrachm

Lysimachos, Tetradrachm, AR, reigned 305–281 BC; struck c. 297–281 BC, 16.8 g, 30 mm. Alexandria Troas mint. Obverse shows the diademed head of the deified Alexander III to right with the horn of Ammon. Reverse bears ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ, with Athena Nikephoros seated left on a backless throne, holding Nike in her right hand, her left arm resting on a shield; transverse spear behind. Struck on the Attic standard at Alexandria Troas. Thompson 157. Lysimachos, one of Alexander’s Diadochi, employed the portrait of the deified Alexander with the Ammon horn to assert dynastic legitimacy across his territories in Thrace and Asia Minor. The Athena Nikephoros reverse formed the standard iconography of his silver coinage and was struck at multiple mints, including the strategic port of Alexandria Troas near the Hellespont. These tetradrachms became a principal trade currency in the northern Aegean and western Asia Minor and continued to be issued posthumously by successor states after Lysimachos’ death in 281 BC.