Obverse, head of Herakles wearing skin of
Nemean
lion in right profile; pellet border, surrounding;
reverse, ???????G??, right; Zeus enthroned left,
half-draped, holding eagle and sceptre, centre;
ram
head, in left field; ?, between legs of throne.
Alexander the Great, son of Philip II of Macedon,
is
arguably the most important historical figure in
the
ancient world. 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.
The need for silver coinage that could be widely
used in Greece prompted him to begin a new
coinage based on the Athenian weight-standard.
His
new silver coins showed the head of Herakles –
from
whom Alexander was supposedly descended –
wearing the skin of the Nemean lion on the
obverse
and a seated Zeus on the reverse. This mint
would
become one of the most staple coinages of the
Greek world and widely imitated by his
successors
within the empire he had forged.
- (C.3263)
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