Alexander III AR Tetradrachm, Babylon, lifetime, Heracles/Zeus

Alexander III (the Great), Tetradrachm, silver, reign 336–323 BC, struck 336–323 BC; 17.10 g; 25 mm. Babylon mint, Macedonian Empire. Obverse anepigraphic: beardless head of Heracles right, wearing the lion-skin headdress; dotted border. Reverse: ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ vertically to right; Zeus Aëtophoros seated left on a stool-throne, eagle on outstretched right hand, sceptre in left; control marks of the Babylon series in left field and within/beneath the throne. Struck on the Attic standard, centered with complete legend and borders. Reference: Price 3665.

Issued at Babylon after Alexander’s conquest of Mesopotamia, this lifetime tetradrachm financed ongoing campaigns and administration across the Near East. The Heracles–Zeus type expressed Alexander’s claimed Heraclid ancestry and sanction from Zeus, while the Attic-weight standard enabled wide circulation from the Aegean to the Persian Gulf. Babylon became one of the principal production centers, and issues of this class continued as the dominant silver currency of the early Hellenistic world both during and immediately after Alexander’s reign.