Macedonia, 328-323 BC
Distater
Philip’s son, Alexander III, succeeded to the throne in 336 BC following his father’s assassination. In 334 he embarked on his great expedition against the Persian Empire, a mission that resulted in the founding of an empire that stretched from Greece to India.
Alexander the Great introduced a common currency system throughout his empire; the gold stater and silver tetradrachm were the basic denominations. Huge quantities of coins were produced and circulated by using the vast amount of captured Persian gold and silver. More than 25 mints operated throughout the empire; symbols and letters on the surface of the coins are indicative of the place of minting. The gold staters and distaters preserved the iconographic types of the helmeted head of the goddess Athena on the obverse and the winged standing Nike [Victory] on the reverse.
The Collection includes a gold distater; the thunderbolt symbol featuring to the left of the standing Nike refers to a Macedonian mint. According to classical literary sources, a gold distater, that is, two gold staters, was equivalent to ten silver tetradrachms, a regular monthly salary for a soldier in Alexander’s army.
Alexander’s currency gained international renown and remained valid for centuries to come. After his death in 323 BC, posthumous Alexander coins continued to be minted in great quantities both by Greek and non-Greek cities, as well as by his successors in an attempt to secure their legitimacy as his heirs; they founded their kingdoms by dividing up Alexander’s territorial gains and they nominated themselves kings.
Obv.: Head of Athena, facing right, wearing a crested Corinthian helmet, decorated with a serpent; the hair falling on the neck in twisted and separated locks.
Rev.: Winged Nike [Victory] standing to the left, holding a wreath in her outstretched right hand and a stylis [mast] in her left; in the left field a thunderbolt and below her right wing a monogram; to the right a Greek legend.
Legend: ΑΛΕΧΑΝΔΡΟΥ, meaning ‘of Alexander’
