Macedon, Alexander III the Great AR tetradrachm, Babylon, c.330-320 BC

Alexander III (the Great), tetradrachm, silver, reign 336–323 BC; struck at Babylon, circa 330–320 BC; 17.10 g; 25.5 mm. Obv: anepigraphic; head of Herakles right, wearing the lion-skin headdress. Rev: BAΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ; Zeus Aëtophoros seated left on a stool‑throne, holding eagle on outstretched right hand and scepter in left; control marks in left field and beneath the throne. Struck on the Attic standard, broad flan; obverse slightly off‑center, reverse well centered. Reference: Price 3751.

Captured Babylon served as one of the principal treasuries and mints of the Macedonian Empire; its massive issues of Attic‑standard tetradrachms financed the late campaigns of Alexander and the early administration of the empire after 323 BC. The Herakles portrait proclaimed Alexander’s Heraklid ancestry, while Zeus with the legend “of King Alexander” asserted royal authority that became the model for successor‑kingdom coinage across the Hellenistic world.