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HOME :
Greek Coins :
Alexander Drachms : Macedonian Silver Drachm of Alexander the Great
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Macedonian Silver Drachm of Alexander the Great - LC.228
Origin: Mediterranean
Circa: 336
BC
to 323
BC
Weight: 4.2Grams
Collection: Numismatics
Medium: Silver
Additional Information: Currently in Korea_ 2020.05.14
£1,200.00
Location: Great Britain
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| Description |
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Obverse: Alexander in the Guise of
Hercules
Reverse: Zeus Seated Holding an Eagles
and
Scepter
Alexander the Great, son of Philip II
of Macedon,
is arguably the most important
historical figure
in the ancient world. Born on July
20th, 356 BC,
he was an astute, if somewhat
headstrong
student, and was schooled by various
famous
teachers, notably Aristotle. By the
time of his
death at the age of 32, he had
personally
supervised one of the largest land-
based
military expeditions of all time, and
had
conquered the whole of the then known
world
from Asia Minor across the whole of
Persia,
Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea,
Gaza, Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Bactria, parts of India,
Afghanistan
and Pakistan. A legend in his own
lifetime, he
became known as much for his excesses
and
cruelty as his extraordinary military
prowess but
was nonetheless a comparatively fair
and
temperate man. Perhaps due to his
supposed
descent from Achilles and Herakles, he
essentially became deified during the
Hellenistic
period. The Greeks celebrated
Alexander in art
and song, and his legend continued
under the
Romans, who had a fascination with
military
campaigns and tactics.
How many hands have touched a coin in
your
pocket or your purse? What eras and
lands have
the coin traversed on its journey into
our
possession? As we reach into our
pockets to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to
think of
who touched the coin before us, or
where the
coin will venture to after us. More
than money,
coins are a symbol of the state that
struck them,
of a specific time and place, whether
currency in
the age we live or an artifact of a
long forgotten
empire. Worth a week's pay, a silver
coin like this
would have rewarded the bravery and
fortitude of
the officers serving under one of
history’s most
celebrated generals, Alexander the
Great. While
his vast kingdom dissolved after his
death, the
carefully cultivated legend of
Alexander will
continue to live on not only in our
history books
and museums, but also in artifacts
like this coin:
concrete remnants of ancient empires
passed
from the hands of civilization to
civilization, from
generation to generation.
- (LC.228)
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