Alexander III, 336-323 BC, Posthumous Issue Tetradrachm

Alexander III of Macedon, tetradrachm, AR, posthumous issue struck at Amphipolis, c. 325–315 BC, 16.43 g, 27 mm. Obverse with the head of Herakles right, wearing the lion-skin headdress; the features rendered in the canonical Alexandrine style. Reverse with Zeus Aëtophoros seated left on a backless throne, holding eagle and sceptre, with the legend AΛEΞANΔPOY; standard Amphipolis style for the posthumous Alexandrine series. Well-centered strike on a broad flan with clear legends and principal devices. Reference: Price 132.

The Amphipolis tetradrachms in the name of Alexander III formed one of the principal international silver currencies of the late 4th century BC, produced in large quantities after Alexander’s death to finance the successor regimes and military operations. Struck to the Attic weight standard and widely exported, these issues circulated across the eastern Mediterranean and Near East, contributing to the monetary integration that accompanied the early Hellenistic period and preserving Alexander’s name and iconography as a political and economic instrument of legitimacy.