Alexander III, 336-323 BC, Posthumous Issue Tetradrachm

Alexander III the Great, tetradrachm, AR, posthumous civic issue, Temnos, c. late 4th–early 3rd century BC, 16.50 g, 28 mm. Obverse with the head of Herakles right, wearing the lion-skin headdress. Reverse with Zeus Aëtophoros seated left on a throne, holding eagle and sceptre; legend AΛEΞANΔPoY. Well-centred strike with clear rendering of the principal types and legible ethnic; minor die wear consistent with issue. Price 1676.

Struck after Alexander’s death, this tetradrachm reflects the continued use of his pan-Hellenic monetary types as a widely accepted silver standard across the eastern Mediterranean. Civic issues such as those of Temnos demonstrate how local mints employed the Alexander coinage to facilitate regional commerce while maintaining the authority and recognizability of the Herakles/Zeus design long after the end of Alexander’s reign.