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Alexander the Great lifetime didrachm, 8.4g, Babylon, Babylonia, c. 325-323 BC, M.J. Price 3603, Müller 674, SNG Saraglos 695, SNG Alpha Bank 679, SNG Manchester 704, SNG Stockholm 280, SNG Ash. 3038, SNG Berry 280, SNG Lockett 1477, SNG Fitz. 2188-2189, Sear Greek 6727, Winterthur 1524, MFA Boston 676, Weber 2126, Pozzi 937, Hunterian 207. Didrachms, half the weight of tetradrachms, twice the weight of drachms, are scarce denominations. This lifetime didrachm from Babylon depicts two mint marks common to Alexander's Babylon coinage, from dekadrachm and stater down to obol, an M and a monogram that combines a small O with a line through it and an upside-down M. |
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Alexander the Great Eagle drachm, 4.0g, Amphipolis, Macedonia, c. 336-326 BC, M.J. Price 153, Thompson I 28-31, SNG Alpha Bank 482, SNG Ash. 2515. Alexander's Eagle silver coinage is much less commonly seen than the Zeus coinage. Hyla Troxell showed convincingly that Alexander's Eagle drachms and fractions were minted in Macedonia along with the larger Zeus tetradrachms. Margaret Thomson attributed the above piece to Miletos based on the reverse monogram, which looks a bit like a house, though Price convincingly argued against this. An Eagle tetradrachm with a bearded Zeus obverse, using the weight standard of Alexander's father Philip II, is even rarer than the drachms. The same type, Herakles obverse and eagle with reverted head reverse, was used by Amyntas III and Perdikas III, Alexander's grandfather and uncle. |
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Alexander the Great lifetime drachm, 4.2g, Sardis, Lydia, Asia Minor, c. 334-323 BC, M.J. Price 2553, Müller 129, SNG Saraglos 788, SNG München 626, SNG Ash. 2831, SNG Cop. 945, SNG Fitz. 2233-2234, Thompson I 175, Yale 75. This open-leg lifetime drachm from Sardis depicts as mint marks a rose under the throne and a monogram that looks a bit like a double E in the reverse left field. Sardis is the most frequently suggested location for the invention of coinage, by the Lydians, about three centuries before the above coin was minted. SNG Cop. attributed this variety to Alexandria, Egypt, while Müller gave it to Traelium, Macedonia. |
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Alexander the Great drachm, 3.9g, uncertain mint. Zeus has crossed legs, and there's no royal title, but no mint mark is discernable. This is the most worn Alexander drachm I've seen that's still identifiable as an Alexander drachm, with most of the coin's detail lost in circulation. Only the letters X-A-N in the middle of the legend are clearly discernable. It was described on eBay as "Wonderful coin with very good detail." Still, it cost only $13.50, not bad for a silver coin about 2,300 years old. |
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Alexander the Great possible lifetime hemidrachm, 2.1g, Arados, Phoenicia, c. 328-320 BC, M.J. Price 3318, Müller 1365, SNG Saraglos 809, SNG München 741, SNG Berry 269, SNG Cop. 1009, SNG Lockett 1507, Winterthur 1560, Pozzi 942. The mint mark in the reverse left field is the Greek letter sigma, while the mint mark between the legs of Zeus' throne is a monogram that combines the letters A and P. |
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Alexander the Great posthumous diobol, 1.23g, Susa, Persia, c. 311-305 BC, M.J. Price 3869. The mint marks in the reverse left field are a wreath and a horned horse head. This coin includes the royal title in the exergue, and as with a number of fractions that do so, it's abbreviated. |
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Alexander the Great possible lifetime obol, 0.4g, uncertain city in East, c. 325-300 BC, M.J. Price 4009v. This coin has similar styling to an obol attributed to an uncertain city in the East in Price, particularly Herakles' face, though it lacks a mint mark. |
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Alexander the Great hemiobol, 0.25g, c. 325-300 BC. The above coin has a thin, wide flan that looks as if it had been hammered in ancient times, perhaps to try to pass the coin off as an obol. An I mint mark appears in the reverse left field. This variety is unrecorded in any attribution reference I've looked at, though hemiobols are typically not well represented. If you have any information about this variety, please let me know. |
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Other glomworthy coins:
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Other coin sites:
Coin Collecting: Consumer Protection
Guide
Glomming: Coin Connoisseurship
Bogos: Counterfeit Coins
Pre-coins
© 2008 Reid Goldsborough
Note: All of the coins illustrated on these pages that are in my possession are stored off site.