The Posthumous Issues of Alexander

Sale: CNG 82, Lot: 421. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2009.  Sold For $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.14 g, 4h). ‘Amphipolis’ mint. Struck under Kassander, circa 316-314 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; shield in left field, pellet-in-Π below throne. Price 136; Troxell, Studies, issue L8. Good VF, obverse slightly off center.

Alexander type coinage was so popular, and became so commonly accepted, that the successor kingdoms, as well as cities in the region of Alexander’s empire, continued to produce coinage in Alexander's name long after his death. These posthumous coins, struck over some 200 years, are not issues of Alexander, but rather the royal coinage of other kings or the civic coinage of individual cities. Accordingly, beginning with this catalog, CNG will list the posthumous Alexanders under their respective cities and kings (if a single king is identifiable for a given issue). In sum, only the lifetime issues will be listed under Alexander, except for issues from an uncertain mint, issues given to more than one possible king, or issues where the attribution to a specific king is not certain (as with lot 421, below).