Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 426. Estimate $400.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.16 g, 11h). Babylon mint. Struck under Perdikkas, circa 323-320 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; M in left field, LU below throne. Price 3692. Good VF, toned, slight die shift on reverse.

The Death of Alexander, the Diadoch Wars, and the Posthumous Coinage of Alexander

When the dying Alexander was asked by his generals at Babylon who would be his successor, he was reported (Diod. Sic. 17.117.4) to have replied while handing his ring to Perdikkas, “to the strongest.” Although apocryphal, the anecdote reveals much about the struggles of Alexander’s successors, known as the diadochs.

The initial succession settlement reached at Babylon allowed for Alexander’s half-brother Philip III to rule jointly with Alexander’s as-yet-unborn son by Roxanna. Since Philip was regarded as mentally deficient and the child was in his minority, Perdikkas, who had been the commander of Alexander's Companion Cavalry, was appointed regent for both. Alexander’s generals were each given their own satrapies: most notably, Ptolemy I acquired Egypt, Antigonos I Monophthalmos controlled central Anatolia, and Eumenes received Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, while Philoxenos held Cilicia, Asander Caria, Lysimachos Thrace, and Krateros and Antipater central Greece and Macedon. The arrangement disintegrated soon thereafter, as each general tried to act with independent authority, precipitating a number of wars that lasted until the mid third century BC (the Diadoch Wars). During this period the territories controlled by each diadoch continually changed, and new leaders emerged to stake their own claims while other diadochs died or were killed in battle.

By this time the Alexander's coinage had supplanted Athenian coinage as the primary currency in the areas Alexander had conquered, and remained so until the Roman period. As such, the number of mints producing Alexandrine coinage proliferated, resulting in a massive quantity of posthumous issues of Alexander compared to that of his lifetime. The seemingly endless conflicts among the diadochs also contributed to the posthumous Alexandrine coinage, as they were reluctant to either place their own names on the coinage or issue their own types until a number of them took the royal title around 305 BC. For this reason, it is not possible to obtain coins of some of the early diadochs other than Alexandrine issues struck from mints that were under their direct control.