Alexander III AR Drachm, Heracles/Zeus, 336–323 BC, uncertain mint, 4.25g

Alexander III (the Great), Drachm, Silver, reign 336–323 BC, struck 336–323 BC, uncertain mint; 4.25 g; 17 mm. Anepigraphic head of beardless Heracles right wearing the lion-skin headdress. Reverse with legend ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ; Zeus Aëtophoros seated left on a backless throne, eagle on outstretched right hand, long sceptre in left; control marks not discernible. Struck on a compact flan; obverse slightly off-centre with granular surfaces; reverse devices clear though legend partly off flan. Attribution to mint and precise chronology (lifetime or early posthumous) cannot be determined from the preserved details. References: uncertain; compare Price, Coinage in the Name of Alexander the Great (general drachm type); cf. SNG Copenhagen 670ff.

Alexander’s Heracles/Zeus silver coinage, struck to the Attic standard at numerous mints from Macedonia to the Near East, financed the Macedonian army during the Asian campaigns and continued in vast quantities under his successors. The types asserted Alexander’s claimed descent from Heracles and divine favor from Zeus, and their wide posthumous use made them the principal trade and military-pay currency across the eastern Mediterranean for generations.