Sale: Nomos 6, Lot: 51. Estimate CHF5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 May 2012.  Sold For CHF4400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. Stater (Gold, 8.58 g 9), struck under Antigonos Monophthalmos, Babylon, c. 317-311. Head of Athena to right, wearing triple-crested Corinthian helmet adorned with a serpent coiled to right on the bowl, pendant earring and pearl necklace. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ Nike standing left with her wings spread, holding laurel wreath in her right hand and stylis in her left; to left, monogram within wreath(here mostly off the flan); to left below wing, Η. Price 3703. Attractive, well struck, lustrous and well centered. Virtually as struck.

The gold coinage in the name of Alexander was struck in literally enormous numbers, mostly from the vast store of gold built up by the Persian kings and captured by Alexander. While the gold was shipped as bullion all over Alexander’s empire, a great deal of that treasure was turned into coins at the newly opened mint in Babylon.