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Search Advanced Search Search By Coin ID     Home ANCIENT/BYZANTINE Ancient Spain (872) Byzantine (753) MEDIEVAL/EARLY WORLD Germany (30) MODERN WORLD COUNTERFEITS AND IMITATIONS   Submit New Coin(s)   Sponsors page Terms of Service Contact Us About Us FAQ Page Coin Detail Click here to see enlarged image. ID:     997116 Type:     Greek Region:     MACEDONIAN KINGS Issuer:     Alexander III Date Ruled:     336-323 BC Metal:     Silver Denomination:     Tetradrachm Struck / Cast:     struck Date Struck:     c. 239 BC Weight:     17.02 g Die Axis:     11 h Obverse Description:     Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin headdress Reverse Legend:     ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ Reverse Description:     Zeus seated left on throne with back, right leg drawn back, both feet on footstool, holding eagle in right hand and scepter in left; in left field, boars jawbone above monogram; monogram below throne Mint:     Uncertain Aetolian Primary Reference:     Price unlisted Tet. #085 Reference2:     Unpublished Photograph Credit:     Nomos AG Source:     https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=997116 Special Comments:     See also :D. Tsangari, Corpus des Monnaies d’or, d’argent et de bronze de la Confédération Ætolienne (Athens, 2007), Third Series, Issue 16, 460-461 and Issue 17, 462-463, all struck from the same obverse die, D 1, but with an Aetolian League reverse. A. Grade:     gVF Notes:     Unique. A spectacular piece of great numismatic interest, beautifully centered and of very fine Hellenistic style. Extremely fine. From the Collection Z, Switzerland, ex Lanz 146, 25 May 2009, 114 (misidentified). This coin is a numismatic discovery of great importance. The unusual symbol, the jawbone of a boar, strongly suggested that it had been minted in Aetolia, but it was its superb and highly individual obverse style that allowed it to be more securely identified. Upon comparing it to the wellknown tetradrachms struck by the Aetolian League (obverse: head of Herakles in a lionskin headdress; reverse: seated figure of Aetolia) a rather astonishing discovery was made: this obverse die was not only used for the first League tetradrachms (obverse D 1), but it was then recut (D 2) and continued in use for the immediately following issues! This means that the Aetolians must have decided to produce tetradrachms, probably for military payments in the run up to the war against Macedon, initially of the familiar Alexander type. They then almost immediately decided to change the design for a more patriotic version of their own, especially since using a Macedonian coin type to finance a war against Macedon probably felt most peculiar.

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