Alexander III AR Tetradrachm, Babylon, 336–323 BC, Price 3629

Alexander III (Macedonian Empire), Tetradrachm, silver, reign 336–323 BC, struck at Babylon 336–323 BC; 17.15 g, 25.5 mm. Obv: anepigraphic; beardless head of Heracles right wearing the lion-skin headdress, border of dots. Rev: ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ; Zeus seated left on a backless stool-throne, eagle on outstretched right hand, sceptre in left; control monogram beneath the throne; dotted border. Even strike on Attic-standard flan with complete legend. Price 3629.

Captured Babylon became one of the principal mints for Alexander’s imperial silver, producing vast emissions of the Heracles/Zeus tetradrachm that financed the army and standardized currency across the new Hellenistic domains. Bearing only the royal name ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, these coins established a widely accepted medium of exchange from Mesopotamia to the Aegean and continued to be struck posthumously by the Diadochi, shaping monetary circulation in the early Hellenistic world.