Greek Coin Tetradrachm

Inv. No.: c019
Provenance: Lysimachus (King of Thrace)
Date: 306-281 B.C.
Weight: 12.50g
 
Obv.: Alexander the Great, bareheaded, horn of Jupiter Ammon sprouting from head.

Rev.: Athena, seated, holding Nike; symbol, shield.

The generals who partitioned Alexander empire after his death, while tending to place their own names on their coins, maintained for many years the Herakles-Zeus types of Alexander (coin c015). Lysimachus, however, chose to preserve the memory of Alexander in a new and striking way: he replaced Herakles with a magnificent profile of Alexander. The temple of Jupiter Ammon, situated in the deserts of Libya, had an oracle who declared Alexander to be the son of Jupiter. This flattery destroyed its long-established reputation, and by the time of Plutarch it was scarcely known. Lysimachus, however, deemed it fitting that the oracle pronouncement be commemorated in the obverse portrait of this coin. Unlike coins of the Persian and Roman Empires, Greek coins never bore the portraits of living rulers.

Athena Nike is about to set a wreath on the initial letter of Lysimachus, a somewhat fatuous allegorical device. The very large mint-mark signifies that the coin was minted in Ionia.

A second similar coin, mintmark A, is less distinct in all details.

Comparanda:
Cf. AGC 517 (obverse only); Seltman, pl. XLIX, 9.