Alexander the Great Coin

Short answer

• An Alexander the Great coin is a coin struck in the name of Alexander III of Macedon, who reigned from 336 to 323 BC. The most famous type is a silver tetradrachm showing the hero Herakles wearing a lion skin on the front and the god Zeus seated on a throne on the back, with the Greek inscription ALEXANDROU, meaning "of Alexander".
• The coinage also includes a gold stater showing Athena in a Corinthian helmet and Nike, goddess of victory, plus smaller silver coins such as drachms and bronze coins for everyday spending.
• Alexander's mints struck these coins across his empire, from Macedonia and Greece to Egypt, Mesopotamia and beyond, and his successors kept striking coins in his name for more than a century after his death in 323 BC.
• Lifetime issues were struck while Alexander lived, from 336 to 323 BC. Posthumous issues were struck after his death, and they can be dated by their mint marks, their style and the name of the ruler who issued them.
• No coin struck in Alexander's lifetime shows a portrait identified as Alexander himself. The famous portrait coins showing him with the ram's horns of Zeus Ammon were issued after his death, first by his general Lysimachus.

What an Alexander the Great Coin Is

An Alexander the Great coin is a coin struck in the name of Alexander III of Macedon, the king who conquered the Persian Empire and carried Greek rule from the Mediterranean to India. Alexander was born in 356 BC, became king in 336 BC at the age of 20, and died in 323 BC at the age of 32. In those 13 years as king he built an empire that stretched from Greece to India, and his coins traveled with his armies, his officials and his traders across the whole of it.

When most people picture an Alexander the Great coin, they picture one coin in particular: the silver tetradrachm. A tetradrachm is a coin worth four drachmas, and it was the workhorse of Alexander’s silver coinage. On the front, or obverse, it shows the young hero Herakles wearing the skin of the Nemean lion as a headdress, with the lion’s paws tied beneath his chin. On the back, or reverse, it shows Zeus seated on a throne, holding an eagle in his right hand and a scepter in his left. Beside Zeus stands the Greek inscription ALEXANDROU, meaning “of Alexander”. The design is simple, bold and easy to recognize, and it stayed almost unchanged for generations.

That consistency is part of what makes these coins so important. Alexander’s coinage was not a short lived experiment. It was struck in dozens of mints, in huge numbers, for decades, and it became the standard silver coinage of the Hellenistic world, the Greek speaking world that followed Alexander’s conquests. Coins in his name have been found all over the ancient world, and they are believed to be one of the most widely circulated coinages in all of antiquity. Today they are among the most collected ancient coins, and they are held by every major museum with a Greek collection.

This article explains the coinage in full: the silver tetradrachm and its smaller companions, the gold stater, the bronze coins used in daily life, the mints that struck them, the difference between lifetime and posthumous issues, and how to identify a genuine example. It gives no valuations and no investment advice, because the worth of any single coin depends on its condition, its rarity and the market at the time, and authentication always needs a specialist.

Alexander and the Reform of the Coinage

Alexander did not invent Macedonian coinage. His father, Philip II, who ruled Macedonia from 359 to 336 BC, had already built a strong coinage on the wealth of the gold and silver mines of northern Greece. Philip struck gold staters and silver tetradrachms in his own name, and his coins were known across the Greek world. Alexander continued his father’s bimetallism, the practice of striking coins in both gold and silver, but he changed the system in ways that mattered.

The most important change was the weight standard. Philip’s silver tetradrachm was struck on a lighter northern standard. Alexander immediately struck a new silver tetradrachm on the Attic standard in his own name, for use in Asia and the Aegean trading area, while Philip’s lighter tetradrachm continued to serve Macedonia and regional Balkan trade. The Attic standard was the weight system of Athens, the strongest trading power in the Greek world, and adopting it meant that Alexander’s silver would be accepted everywhere Greek traders worked. A tetradrachm on the Attic standard weighs about 17.2 grams, and surviving examples in the British Museum weigh 17.06 and 17.17 grams.

The second change was the design. Philip’s silver coins showed Zeus on the front and a horseman on the back, with the inscription PHILIPPOU. Alexander replaced them with the Herakles and Zeus design that became his signature. The choice was political as well as artistic. The Macedonian kings claimed descent from Herakles, and Alexander presented himself as the hero’s heir. Zeus, king of the gods, was the father of Herakles and the patron of kingship. Together, the two images told anyone who handled the coin that Alexander ruled by descent from a hero and by the favor of the gods.

The third change was scale. Alexander established dozens of mints in Greece and Asia, creating one of the most massive monetary productions in antiquity, according to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. His coins were struck in Macedonia, in the Greek cities of Asia Minor, in Phoenicia, in Egypt, in Mesopotamia and in Bactria. Each mint added its own small marks, but the designs stayed the same, so a merchant in Babylon and a soldier in Egypt could recognize the same coin at a glance. That recognition was the point. A single trusted coinage, accepted from one end of the empire to the other, made it easier to pay armies, collect taxes and move goods.

The Silver Tetradrachm

The tetradrachm is the coin most people mean when they say “Alexander the Great coin”, and it deserves a close look. It is a large silver coin, about 24 to 26 millimeters across, about the size of a modern quarter but thicker and heavier. Its weight of about 17.2 grams is the weight of four Attic drachmas, and that is where the name comes from: tetra means four.

The obverse shows the head of the young, beardless Herakles facing right, wearing the lion skin headdress. The lion’s ears sit above Herakles’ forehead, the mane frames his face, and the paws are tied in a knot beneath his chin. The image is one of the most famous in Greek art, and it is remarkably consistent across mints and decades, even though the quality of the engraving varies. Some examples are finely detailed, with every curl of hair and every fold of the lion skin carefully cut. Others are cruder, struck quickly at a frontier mint for an army on the march.

Scholars commonly read the youthful Herakles as a stand-in for Alexander himself. The hero’s features are young and idealized, and the suggestion is that the engravers gave Herakles something of the king’s own face. That reading is a scholarly interpretation, not a proven fact, and it should be treated as such. What is certain is that Alexander chose a hero he claimed as an ancestor, and that the choice linked the king to a figure every Greek knew.

The reverse shows Zeus seated on a throne, facing left, with his lower body draped and his right leg drawn back. In his right hand he holds an eagle, and in his left hand he holds a scepter. The inscription ALEXANDROU runs down the right side of the coin, and on later issues the fuller form BASILEWS ALEXANDROU, meaning “of King Alexander”, appears instead. Small symbols and monograms in the field, the open space around Zeus, or beneath the throne identify the mint and sometimes the official in charge of the issue.

There is one detail on some early eastern issues that shows how carefully Alexander’s mint masters adapted to local audiences. At Tarsus, in Cilicia, Zeus appears seated on a Persian style throne, and some scholars have suggested that this unusual image reflects the earlier coinage of Mazaios, the Persian satrap of the region, whose coins showed the god Baal of Tarsus holding an eagle. Greek soldiers could read the image as Zeus, while local users could read it as a familiar god. That suggestion is a scholarly reading of the evidence, not a settled fact, but it shows how coin images could speak to more than one audience at once.

The tetradrachm was struck in enormous numbers. The standard reference catalog, Martin Jessop Price’s The Coinage in the Name of Alexander the Great and Philip Arrhidaeus, published by the British Museum in 1991, lists 1,269 official tetradrachm types, and each type represents many thousands of individual coins. Hoards of Alexander tetradrachms have been found from Egypt to Afghanistan, and the type remained in use so long that a tetradrachm struck a century after Alexander’s death can look very like one struck in his lifetime. That long life is why dating these coins needs care, and why the difference between lifetime and posthumous issues matters so much.

The Gold Stater

If the tetradrachm was the coin of trade and taxation, the gold stater was the coin of prestige. Alexander introduced the gold stater in 332 BC, after besieging and capturing the wealthy island city of Tyre, to replace the gold coins of Philip II. It was struck on the Attic standard at about 8.6 grams of gold, and it carried two goddesses instead of the two male gods of the silver.

The obverse shows Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare, in profile facing right, wearing a crested Corinthian helmet decorated with a coiled serpent. Her hair falls in twisted curls, and she wears a necklace. The Corinthian helmet is a deliberate reference to the Corinthian League, the alliance of Greek city states that Philip had formed and that Alexander renewed in 336 BC when he became king. The reverse shows Nike, goddess of victory, standing left with her wings half spread, holding a wreath in her extended right hand and a ship’s stylis, a staff, in her left arm. The inscription ALEXANDROU, or in later issues BASILEWS ALEXANDROU, stands in the field.

The stater is a small coin, about 18 millimeters across, slightly smaller than a modern dime, but it feels heavy for its size because gold is dense. A well preserved example in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, dated 336 to 323 BC, weighs 8.61 grams and measures 1.8 centimeters across. A British Museum example dated about 330 to 320 BC weighs 8.54 grams. The standard reference catalog lists 349 official stater types.

Alexander also struck a double stater, called a distater, weighing about 17.24 grams. The distater was the heaviest gold coin produced by the Greeks up to that time, and it is very rare. A famous example struck at Amphipolis in about 323 to 316 BC, just after Alexander’s death, shows Athena on the obverse and Nike on the reverse, and only a handful of examples are known. Alexander-style gold staters continued to be struck long after his death, and the last of them were issued in the Black Sea cities of Odessos and Sinope in about 200 BC, according to a specialist collector reference. That long run is a measure of how trusted the design had become.

The gold and silver coinages worked together. Gold was worth roughly 10 to 12 times as much as silver by weight in the ancient world, so a single gold stater was worth about 20 silver drachmas, or five tetradrachms. Gold was used for large payments, for gifts, for storing wealth and for paying senior officers. Silver was used for most trade and for paying ordinary soldiers. Bronze, as the next section explains, was used for daily shopping.

Drachms and Smaller Silver Coins

The tetradrachm was not the only silver coin in Alexander’s system. The same Herakles and Zeus design was struck in smaller sizes, so that the coinage could serve smaller transactions. The drachm, worth one quarter of a tetradrachm and weighing about 4.3 grams, was the commonest of the smaller silver coins. It shows the same young Herakles on the obverse, and on the reverse either the seated Zeus of the tetradrachm or a standing eagle.

Between the tetradrachm and the drachm came the didrachm, worth two drachmas. Below the drachm came the tiny fractions called triobols, diobols and obols. All of them carry the Herakles obverse, and all are inscribed simply ALEXANDROU. These small coins are less common than tetradrachms and drachms, and they are often worn, because they changed hands constantly. A diobol in the British Museum, for example, is a small silver coin of the same Herakles type, with two eagles facing each other on the reverse.

The smaller silver coins matter for two reasons. First, they show that Alexander’s coinage was a complete system, not just a prestige issue for large payments. It covered every level of spending, from a gold stater worth a small fortune to a bronze coin worth a loaf of bread. Second, they help collectors and historians date the coinage, because the smaller denominations often carry mint marks and symbols that link them to the same issues as the tetradrachms.

Bronze Coins for Everyday Spending

The bronze coins of Alexander are the least glamorous part of his coinage and, in some ways, the most revealing. Unlike the silver and gold, which were struck to a single standard and accepted across the empire, the bronze coins were local in nature. They were struck for use in local marketplaces, to buy bread and wine for the family, and their designs and weights vary from mint to mint.

The most common bronze type shows the head of Herakles in his lion skin on the obverse, and on the reverse a bow inside its case, a quiver, and the heavy club of Herakles. The club can sit above or beneath the quiver, and the inscription ALEXANDROU runs between the weapons. This type is usually about 16 to 19 millimeters across and weighs about 5 to 7 grams. It was struck in Macedonia and at mints across Asia Minor, and it is the bronze coin a collector is most likely to meet.

Other bronze types show a gorytos, a combined case for a bow and quiver, with a club, or a Macedonian shield, or a helmet. The denominations were measured in chalkoi, small copper units, with the largest common bronze worth four chalkoi, or half an obol, and the smallest worth a single chalkos, about 11 millimeters across and 1.5 grams in weight. A single chalkos was the smallest denomination coin in use in Alexander’s time, when a loaf of bread cost only a few such coins.

The bronze coins are useful for identification because they are so common and so clearly local. A bronze coin with a clear mint mark can be tied to a specific city, and its style can place it within a few years. They are also a reminder that Alexander’s coinage was not only about armies and treasuries. It was the money ordinary people used every day, and the same Herakles who appeared on a gold stater also appeared on a coin worth a loaf of bread. Readers who want to compare another famous small bronze coin can read our guide to the widow’s mite coin, a tiny bronze coin from a different world that played a similar everyday role.

Mints: From Macedonia to Babylon

Alexander’s coins were struck at dozens of mints, and the mint is often the key to dating and understanding a coin. The two principal royal Macedonian mints were Amphipolis and Pella, in Macedonia itself. Amphipolis had the practical advantage of sitting close to the gold and silver mines of the region, and it became Alexander’s chief mint. Pella was the Macedonian capital and the seat of the court.

One caution is needed here. The chief Macedonian mint is traditionally called Amphipolis, but the attribution is not certain. Margaret Thompson, in her study of the Macedonian coinage published by the American Numismatic Society, noted that she used the name Amphipolis with great reluctance, because she had no confidence that the city, rather than Pella or perhaps Aegae or Philippi, was the source of this enormous silver output. Modern catalogs keep the traditional name for convenience, but a careful reader should know that the label is a convention, not a proven fact.

Beyond Macedonia, mints sprang up wherever Alexander’s armies went. In Asia Minor there were mints at Abydos, where Alexander crossed into Asia, at Miletus, at Sardis, at Side in Pamphylia, and at Tarsus in Cilicia. In Phoenicia there were mints at Tyre, Sidon and Aradus. In Egypt there was a mint at Memphis, and later at Alexandria. In Mesopotamia there was a mint at Babylon, where Alexander died. Further east there were mints in Bactria and in the cities Alexander founded along his route to India.

Each mint can be recognized by its marks. A small symbol in the field beside Zeus, a letter or a monogram beneath the throne, or a symbol in the exergue, the space below the main design, can identify the mint and sometimes the magistrate responsible for the issue. A Yale University example struck at Amphipolis in 330 to 323 BC carries a cock as its symbol. A Harvard example struck at Pella in 325 to 315 BC carries the letters TH beneath the throne. A Harvard example from Side carries the letters DI. Learning to read these marks is the first step in attributing an Alexander coin, and the standard reference for them is Price’s 1991 catalog, which assigns a number to every known type.

The spread of the mints is also the story of the coinage. In Alexander’s lifetime the mints followed the army. After his death they followed his successors, and the same designs were struck in cities that had never seen Alexander himself. That is why an Alexander the Great coin can come from so many places, and why two coins that look almost identical can have been struck a century apart in cities thousands of miles from each other.

Lifetime Coins and Posthumous Coins

The most important distinction a reader of Alexander coins must learn is the difference between lifetime issues and posthumous issues. A lifetime issue was struck while Alexander lived, between 336 and 323 BC. A posthumous issue was struck after his death, in his name, by his successors. The two can look very similar, and telling them apart is the central skill of collecting and studying these coins.

Lifetime issues were struck under Alexander’s direct authority, and their mint marks follow the sequence of his campaigns. Early lifetime tetradrachms, struck in Macedonia in the first years of his reign, carry the simple inscription ALEXANDROU. Later lifetime issues, struck after the conquest of the Persian Empire, sometimes add the royal title, BASILEWS ALEXANDROU. The style of the engraving is usually fine on early issues, and the flans, the blank discs of metal, are broad and well struck.

Posthumous issues began immediately after Alexander’s death in 323 BC. His empire was divided among his generals, known as the Diadochi, or successors, and they kept striking coins in his name for decades. There were good reasons to do so. Alexander’s coinage was trusted across the whole Greek world, and a coin in his name was accepted everywhere. A successor who put his own name on a coin risked having it rejected, while a coin in Alexander’s name carried the authority of the dead king. The successors also had a political reason: striking in Alexander’s name presented them as his legitimate heirs.

Posthumous issues continued for a very long time. An Ashmolean Museum tetradrachm struck at Aradus in Phoenicia is dated 216 to 215 BC, more than a century after Alexander’s death. Another, struck at Temnus in Asia Minor, is dated to about 188 to 170 BC. Some posthumous issues were struck under the name of Philip III Arrhidaeus, Alexander’s half brother and successor, whose name appears in the title of Price’s standard catalog. Others were struck by the successors in their own names alongside Alexander’s types.

The most famous posthumous coins are the portrait issues of Lysimachus, one of Alexander’s generals, who became king of Thrace. Lysimachus struck silver tetradrachms between 297 and 281 BC showing the head of Alexander himself, wearing the ram’s horns of Zeus Ammon, the god Alexander had visited at the oracle of Siwa in Egypt. The reverse shows Athena seated, holding Nike, with the inscription BASILEWS LYSIMACHOU, meaning “of King Lysimachus”. The Art Institute of Chicago holds an example struck at Ephesus, and the British Museum holds an example struck at Pergamon weighing 17 grams. Lysimachus used the king’s image on his own coins to cast himself as Alexander’s successor and to legitimize his claim to the kingdom of Thrace, according to the Art Institute of Chicago.

The horns of Ammon are the key to recognizing these coins. Alexander was said to be the son of Zeus Ammon, and the horns mark the portrait as divine. No lifetime coin shows Alexander with these horns, and no lifetime coin shows a portrait identified as Alexander at all. The portrait coins are all posthumous, and they are among the most admired coins of the ancient world.

Dating a posthumous issue is a matter of evidence, not guesswork. Specialists use the mint marks, the style of the engraving, the weight and fabric of the coin, and the hoards in which it was found. A coin found in a hoard buried in 200 BC cannot have been struck after that date. A coin with a mint mark used only at one city in one decade can be placed within that decade. For a general reader, the practical rule is simple: a coin in Alexander’s name is not necessarily from Alexander’s lifetime, and any claim that a particular coin was struck while he lived needs the evidence of its mint, its type and its Price catalog number.

How to Identify an Alexander the Great Coin

Identifying an Alexander the Great coin is a step by step process, and it can be done with patience and a good reference. The steps below work for the common types, and they will tell a reader whether a coin belongs to Alexander’s coinage at all.

First, look at the metal and the size. A silver coin about 24 to 26 millimeters across and weighing about 17 grams is very likely a tetradrachm. A silver coin about 18 millimeters across and weighing about 4.3 grams is likely a drachm. A small gold coin about 18 millimeters across and weighing about 8.6 grams is likely a stater. A bronze coin about 16 to 19 millimeters across is likely one of the common bronze types. A coin that is much lighter than these figures, or much larger, needs a closer look, because it may be a different denomination, a later imitation, or a modern copy.

Second, look at the obverse. The head of Herakles in a lion skin, facing right, is the mark of the silver and bronze coinage. The head of Athena in a Corinthian helmet is the mark of the gold stater. If the obverse shows a portrait of a man wearing the ram’s horns of Ammon, the coin is a posthumous portrait issue, most likely of Lysimachus.

Third, look at the reverse. Zeus seated on a throne with an eagle and a scepter, with the inscription ALEXANDROU, is the mark of the tetradrachm and the drachm. Nike standing with a wreath is the mark of the gold stater. A bow, a quiver and a club are the mark of the bronze coinage. Read the inscription if it is legible. ALEXANDROU means “of Alexander”. BASILEWS ALEXANDROU means “of King Alexander”. BASILEWS LYSIMACHOU means “of King Lysimachus”, and the coin is a posthumous issue of Lysimachus, not of Alexander’s lifetime.

Fourth, look for the mint marks. A small symbol, letter or monogram in the field beside Zeus, beneath the throne, or in the exergue can identify the mint. Compare the marks with Price’s catalog, which is the standard reference, or with the online records of the American Numismatic Society and the Ashmolean Museum, which give Price numbers for their coins. A coin with no legible mint mark can still be identified by its type and style, but the attribution will be less precise.

Fifth, check the style and the fabric. Genuine ancient coins were struck by hand, with a hammer and dies, so they are rarely perfectly round and rarely perfectly centered. The design may be slightly off center, the edge may be irregular, and the surfaces will show the marks of striking and of burial. A coin that is perfectly round, perfectly centered and unnaturally sharp may be a modern copy. That is not a proof by itself, because some genuine coins are very well struck, but it is a reason to seek a specialist opinion.

Sixth, weigh the coin and measure it. A tetradrachm should weigh close to 17.2 grams. A stater should weigh close to 8.6 grams. A drachm should weigh close to 4.3 grams. Weight alone does not prove a coin is genuine, because forgers can match the weight, but a coin far from the standard weight is a warning sign.

Finally, remember that identification is not the same as authentication. Identifying a coin means saying what type it is, where it was struck and when. Authenticating it means saying it is a genuine ancient coin and not a copy. Authentication needs a specialist, and a reputable dealer or an auction house with a numismatics department can provide it. Never buy an Alexander coin on the strength of a photograph alone, and never accept a seller’s attribution without checking it against Price’s catalog or a museum record.

Collectors who come to ancient coins from modern American rarities will find a different world of grading and attribution, and our guide to the most valuable US coins explains how modern rarities are ranked. The two fields share the language of condition and rarity, but ancient coins are judged by type, mint and historical interest as much as by condition, and a worn Alexander tetradrachm with a rare mint mark can be more interesting than a well preserved example of a common type.

Forgeries, Copies and Authentication

Alexander the Great coins are among the most copied ancient coins, because they are famous, popular and widely collected. Forgeries range from crude tourist copies, which are easy to spot, to skilled modern fakes struck from copied dies, which can fool an inexperienced buyer. Ancient imitations also exist: rulers and cities in the centuries after Alexander copied his designs with their own inscriptions, and those imitations are themselves ancient coins with their own history, but they are not official Alexander issues.

There are a few practical rules that protect a buyer. Buy from a reputable dealer or auction house with a written guarantee of authenticity, and keep the invoice and any certificate. Ask for the coin’s Price catalog number and check it against the catalog or against a museum record. Be wary of coins sold online with no provenance, no weight given and no clear photographs of both sides. Be especially wary of coins offered at a small fraction of the price asked by reputable dealers, because that gap is often the price of a fake.

If a coin is already in a family collection or was found in an old box, take it to a specialist before cleaning it or attempting to value it. Cleaning an ancient coin can damage its surfaces and reduce both its historical value and its appeal to collectors. A specialist can identify the type, the mint and the date, and can say whether the coin needs professional conservation. This article gives no valuations and no investment advice, because the worth of a single coin depends on its condition, its rarity, its mint and the market at the time, and only a specialist who has handled the coin can judge those things.

The rarity of Alexander coins is often misunderstood. The common tetradrachm is one of the most available ancient coins, and it appears regularly at auction and in dealers’ lists. That availability is part of its appeal: it is a genuine coin of the ancient world that an ordinary collector can own. The truly rare Alexander coins are the exceptions, such as the gold distater, of which only a handful are known, or tetradrachms from rare mints in fine condition. Those rarities belong in a different class from the common types, and they are the subject of our guide to the rarest coin in the world. At the other end of the scale, the most famous coins ever sold at auction, including the record holders in our guide to the most expensive coin in the world, show how far the market for rare coins can go, but they are not a guide to what an ordinary Alexander coin is worth.

Why These Coins Matter

Alexander’s coins matter for reasons that go beyond collecting. They are the first coinage in history to be used across three continents, and they set the pattern for the coinage of the Hellenistic world that followed. After Alexander’s death, his successors kept his designs, his weight standard and his mints, and the Hellenistic kingdoms that grew from his empire struck coins that any trader from Macedonia to India could recognize. The coinage was a piece of infrastructure, as important in its way as the roads and the cities Alexander founded.

They also matter as historical evidence. Coins are dated, they are struck in known places, and they survive in large numbers, so they tell historians things that written sources do not. The sequence of mint marks on Alexander’s tetradrachms traces the movement of his armies and his administration. The opening of a new mint at a city marks the moment that city came under his control. The change from the simple inscription ALEXANDROU to the fuller BASILEWS ALEXANDROU marks a change in how Alexander presented his kingship. The posthumous issues trace the politics of his successors, who used his name to claim legitimacy long after his death.

The coins matter as art as well. The head of Herakles on the tetradrachm is one of the most copied images in Greek art, and the seated Zeus is a masterpiece of compact design, fitting a full divine figure, an eagle, a scepter and an inscription onto a disc the size of a quarter. The gold stater’s Athena, with her serpent decorated helmet, and Nike with her spread wings are equally fine, and they were struck with a precision that modern mints would respect.

Finally, the coins matter because they are the most direct physical link most people will ever have to Alexander himself. A tetradrachm struck in his lifetime may have been handled by a soldier in his army, paid as wages after a battle, or carried in a merchant’s purse across the empire. A posthumous tetradrachm may have been struck by a king who had known Alexander personally. Holding one is holding a piece of the ancient world that was made to be used, and that was used, by the people who lived in it.

Where to See Alexander Coins Today

Alexander coins are held by museums all over the world, and many are on public display or published in online collections. The British Museum in London holds a large collection, including lifetime tetradrachms, a gold stater dated about 330 to 320 BC, and a Lysimachus portrait tetradrachm struck at Pergamon. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York holds a silver tetradrachm from Pella dated 315 to 308 BC. The Art Institute of Chicago holds a Lysimachus tetradrachm struck at Ephesus between 297 and 281 BC. The Yale University Art Gallery holds a silver coin struck at Amphipolis in 330 to 323 BC. The American Numismatic Society in New York holds one of the world’s great collections of Greek coins and publishes its research in a free digital library.

Seeing a coin in a museum is the best way to learn what a genuine example looks like. The weight, the color of the silver, the depth of the striking and the style of the engraving are all easier to judge in person than in a photograph. A museum visit will also show how much variation there is within a single type, and how the same design can look very different when struck at different mints in different decades.

FAQ

What is an Alexander the Great coin?

An Alexander the Great coin is a coin struck in the name of Alexander III of Macedon, who reigned from 336 to 323 BC. The most famous type is a silver tetradrachm showing Herakles wearing a lion skin on the front and Zeus seated on a throne on the back, with the inscription ALEXANDROU, meaning “of Alexander”. The coinage also includes gold staters, smaller silver coins and bronze coins.

What does the Alexander the Great coin look like?

The best known Alexander coin, the silver tetradrachm, shows the young hero Herakles wearing the skin of the Nemean lion on the front, and Zeus seated on a throne holding an eagle and a scepter on the back. The gold stater shows Athena in a Corinthian helmet on the front and Nike, goddess of victory, on the back. The bronze coins show Herakles on the front and a bow, a quiver and a club on the back.

How can you tell a lifetime Alexander coin from a posthumous one?

Lifetime issues were struck between 336 and 323 BC, while Alexander lived. Posthumous issues were struck after his death, in his name, by his successors. The two are told apart by their mint marks, their style, their weight and fabric, and the hoards in which they are found, all checked against the standard reference, Price’s 1991 catalog. A coin in Alexander’s name is not necessarily from his lifetime, and any claim that it is needs that evidence.

What is an Alexander the Great tetradrachm?

A tetradrachm is a silver coin worth four drachmas, weighing about 17.2 grams and measuring about 24 to 26 millimeters across. Alexander’s tetradrachm shows Herakles on the front and Zeus on the back, with the inscription ALEXANDROU. It was the main silver coin of his empire and the most widely struck of all his types.

What is an Alexander the Great gold stater?

A gold stater is a gold coin weighing about 8.6 grams, introduced by Alexander in 332 BC after the capture of Tyre. It shows Athena in a Corinthian helmet on the front and Nike, goddess of victory, on the back. Alexander also struck a double stater, or distater, weighing about 17.24 grams, which was the heaviest gold coin produced by the Greeks up to that time.

Did Alexander the Great coins show his portrait?

No coin struck in Alexander’s lifetime shows a portrait identified as Alexander himself. His lifetime coins show the hero Herakles, whom the Macedonian kings claimed as an ancestor. The famous portrait coins showing Alexander with the ram’s horns of Zeus Ammon were struck after his death, first by his general Lysimachus between 297 and 281 BC, to present Lysimachus as Alexander’s legitimate successor.

How much is an Alexander the Great coin worth?

This article gives no valuations, because the worth of a single coin depends on its type, its mint, its condition, its rarity and the market at the time. Common Alexander tetradrachms are among the most available ancient coins, while rare types such as the gold distater are known from only a handful of examples. Any coin should be judged by a specialist who has handled it in person.

Where were Alexander the Great coins minted?

Alexander’s coins were struck at dozens of mints across his empire, including Amphipolis and Pella in Macedonia, Abydos, Miletus, Sardis, Side and Tarsus in Asia Minor, Tyre, Sidon and Aradus in Phoenicia, Memphis and Alexandria in Egypt, Babylon in Mesopotamia, and mints further east in Bactria. Each mint can be recognized by small symbols and monograms on the coin.

How long were Alexander the Great coins made?

Coins in Alexander’s name were struck in his lifetime, from 336 to 323 BC, and then by his successors for more than a century after his death. Dated posthumous tetradrachms survive from Aradus in 216 to 215 BC and from Temnus in about 188 to 170 BC, and Alexander-style gold staters were still being struck in Black Sea cities in about 200 BC.

Are Alexander the Great coins rare?

The common silver tetradrachm is not rare. It was struck in huge numbers across dozens of mints, and it is one of the most collected ancient coins. Rare Alexander coins do exist, including gold distaters and tetradrachms from scarce mints in fine condition, but most examples a reader will meet are common types, and that availability is part of their appeal.

Sources & references

• British Museum, collection record for a silver tetradrachm of Alexander the Great, museum number 1929,0811.24, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1929-0811-24 (silver tetradrachm, head of young Herakles and seated Zeus, about 336 to 323 BC, weight 17.06 grams; Price 1991 reference).
• British Museum, collection record for a silver tetradrachm of Alexander the Great, museum number 1929,0811.20, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1929-0811-20 (silver tetradrachm, diameter 24 millimeters, weight 17.17 grams, about 336 to 323 BC).
• British Museum, collection record for a silver diobol of Alexander the Great, museum number HPB,p48.74, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_HPB-p48-74 (silver diobol, inscription ALEXANDROU).
• British Museum, collection record for a gold stater of Alexander the Great, museum number G3,GIG.15, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_G3-GIG-15 (gold stater, helmeted head of Athena and Nike, about 330 to 320 BC, diameter 18 millimeters, weight 8.54 grams).
• British Museum, collection record for a silver tetradrachm of Lysimachus with the portrait of Alexander, museum number 1994,0915.76, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1994-0915-76 (tetradrachm, head of Alexander with the horns of Zeus Ammon, 297 to 281 BC, minted at Pergamon, weight 17 grams).
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, silver tetradrachm of Alexander III of Macedon, object number 05.44.388, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/247146 (silver tetradrachm from Pella, head of Herakles and seated Zeus, dated 315 to 308 BCE).
• Art Institute of Chicago, tetradrachm portraying Alexander the Great, reference number 1922.4924, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/5764/tetradrachm-coin-portraying-alexander-the-great (tetradrachm issued by King Lysimachus of Thrace, 297 to 281 BCE, minted at Ephesus; Lysimachus used the king's image to legitimize his claim to Thrace).
• Yale University Art Gallery, coin of Alexander the Great from Amphipolis, accession number 2001.87.3697, https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/119073 (silver coin, 330 to 323 BC, weight 17.2 grams, diameter 26 millimeters; Herakles obverse and Zeus reverse with a cock mint mark).
• Harvard Art Museums, tetradrachm of Alexander the Great from Pella, object number 1.1965.1133, https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/188591 (tetradrachm dated 325 to 315 BCE, Price 214; Zeus reverse with TH beneath the throne).
• Harvard Art Museums, tetradrachm of Alexander the Great from Side, object number 2002.120, https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/142468 (tetradrachm dated 325 to 320 BCE, Price 3666; Zeus reverse with DI beneath the throne).
• American Numismatic Society, Margaret Thompson, Studies in the Macedonian Coinage of Alexander the Great, digital library, http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan174624 (tetradrachm and smaller silver types, inscriptions ALEXANDROU and BASILEWS ALEXANDROU; Amphipolis attribution discussed as uncertain).
• Ashmolean Museum, Heberden Coin Room, coin record HCR23787, https://hcr.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coin/HCR23787 (silver tetradrachm from Memphis, dated about 323 to 316 BC according to Price).
• Ashmolean Museum, Heberden Coin Room, coin record HCR23650, https://hcr.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coin/HCR23650 (silver tetradrachm from Aradus, dated 216 to 215 BC according to Price).
• Ashmolean Museum, Heberden Coin Room, coin record HCR24023, https://hcr.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coin/HCR24023 (silver tetradrachm from Temnus, dated about 188 to 170 BC according to Price).
• Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, gold stater of Alexander III, http://www.amth.gr/en/exhibitions/exhibit-of-the-month/gold-stater-alexander-iii (gold stater, 336 to 323 BC, diameter 1.8 centimeters, weight 8.61 grams; Athena and Nike types; Alexander continued his father's bimetallism and adopted the Attic standard; dozens of mints).
• Rhode Island School of Design Museum, stater coin of Alexander the Great, https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/stater-coin-40015324 (gold stater, about 323 BCE, weight 8.6 grams; Athena in her war helmet and Nike, symbols of Alexander's power and the Corinthian League).
• Classical Numismatic Group, Feature Auction Triton XII, lot for a gold distater of Alexander III, https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=132398 (gold distater, 17.24 grams, Amphipolis mint, about 323 to 316 BC; distaters were the heaviest gold coins produced by the Greeks up to that time).
• Springer, "From ore to empire: precious metals and the rise of Macedonia", https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-026-02565-8 (Alexander struck a new silver tetradrachm on the Attic standard in his own name; in 332 BCE, after besieging Tyre, he introduced a gold stater on the Attic standard of 8.6 grams).
• Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Macedonian silver tetradrachm, https://library.willamette.edu/hfma/omeka/exhibits/show/coinsofthegreekandromanworld/item/65 (Alexander's coinage among the most widely circulated in antiquity; Herakles as ancestor of the Macedonian kings; Tarsus Zeus on a Persian style throne as a scholarly suggestion).
• Ancient Coins reference, Alexander the Great staters, http://rg.ancients.info/alexander/staters.html (specialist collector reference; last Alexander-style staters issued in Odessos and Sinope in about 200 BC; 349 official staters listed by Price).
• Ancient Coins reference, Alexander the Great bronze coins, http://rg.ancients.info/alexander/bronzes.html (specialist collector reference; bronze coinage local in nature, used in local marketplaces; quiver and club types, denominations in chalkoi, smallest one chalkos bronze).