3rd CENTURY BC SILVER IONIA ISLE OF CHIOS DRACHM ALEXANDER III NGC ABOUT UNC.

Description

REIGN OF ALEXANDER III, THE GREAT (336 - 323 BC)
POTHUMOUS ISSUE OF IONIA
OVERSTRUCK
SILVER DRACHM COIN
CERTIFIED BY NGC ABOUT UNCIRCULATED
STRIKE: 4/5
SURFACE: 5/5
OBV:
ALEXANDER THE GREAT WEARING THE LIONSKIN HEADDRESS OF THE GOD HERACLES (HERAKLES, HERCULES).
REV:
ZEUS SITTING ON HIS THRONE HOLDING SCEPTER WITH LEFT HAND AND WITH AN EAGLE IN HIS RIGHT HAND.
ALEXANDER III OF MACEDON
(b. 356, d.323 BCE), KNOWN AS "
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
", WAS THE CREATOR OF ONE OF THE LARGEST OF ANCIENT EMPIRES, STRETCHING FROM GREECE AND THE SEA OF IONIA TO INDIA. IN JUST ELEVEN YEARS HE CONQUERED THE VAST PERSIAN EMPIRE, TO BECOME
SHAHANSHA
(KING OF KINGS), LORD OF ASIA AND PHARAOH OF EGYPT, CONFIRMING HIS PLACE IN HISTORY AS THE GREATEST MILITARY GENIUS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD.
THE SON OF KING PHILIP II OF MACEDON (b. 382, d. 336 BC)AND OLYMPIAS OF EPIRUS (b. 375, d. 316 BC), ALEXANDER WAS TUTORED IN HIS YOUTH BY THE FAMED ARISTOTLE.
HIS MOTHER, ESTRANGED FROM HER HUSBAND, HAD A GREAT INFLUENCE OVER HER SON, AND CONVINCED HIM THAT THE GOD ZEUS WAS HIS REAL FATHER.
FROM AN EARLY AGE, ALEXANDER, ENCOURAGED BY HIS MOTHER OLYMPIAS, IDENTIFIED HIMSELF WITH HERACLES, THE SON OF ZEUS.
THE MYTHOLOGICAL LION HEADRESS OF HERAKLES WAS MADE FROM THE PELT OF THE NEMEAN LION, SLAIN BY HERAKLES AS PART OF HIS 12 LABORS.
THE SYMBOLS OF HERACLES AND ZUES ARE COMMON ON COINAGE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS MACEDONIAN CONQUEROR OF THE ANCIENT KNOWN WORLD.
ALEXANDER'S FATHER, PHILIP II, WHO BROUGHT THE GREEK CITY STATES UNDER THE THRALL OF MACEDON, HARNESSED THE HATE THE GREEKS HAD FOR THE PERSIAN EMPIRE TO UNITE THE DISSEPARATE CITY-STATES, IN ADDITION TO USING MACEDONIAN MARTIAL FORCE, TO BRING THEM FIRMLY UNDER HIS LEADERSHIP. ALEXANDER AIDED PHILIP AS REGENT AND AS A COMMANDER WHOSE BRAVERY AND POPULARITY MAY HAVE HELPED ALIENATE HIM FROM HIS FATHER.
WHEN PHILIP CHOSE TO MARRY, AND PERHAPS BEAR A RIVAL TO THE THRONE, THE RIFT BETWEEN FATHER AND SON WIDENED. PHILIP WAS ASSASINATED IN 336, AND ALEXANDER WAS PROCLAIMED KING BY THE VETERAN PROFESSIONAL MACEDONIAN ARMY. HE TOOK UP HIS FATHER'S QUEST TO INVADE ASIA AND AVENGE THE GREEKS AGAINST PERSIA.
ALEXANDER DID MORE THAN JUST FREE THE GREEK CITY STATES OF ASIA MINOR FROM PERSIAN RULE, HE AND HIS SMALL ARMY CONQUERED THE ENTIRE VAST PERSIAN EMPIRE AND BEYOND, TO THE EDGE OF HIS WORLD.
A COLLOSSUS OF LEGEND AND HISTORY, ALEXANDER THE GREAT IS REMEMBERED FOR BEING ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY COMMANDERS OF ALL TIME.
THE MACEDONIAN GOLD STATER WAS THE PREEMINENT STANDARD GOLD TRADE COIN OF HELLENISTIC TIMES. MANY WERE COINED THROUGHOUT THE CONQUERED CITIES ALEXANDER MARCHED THROUGH. A GREAT NUMBER OF ALEXANDRIAN STATERS WERE MADE FROM CAPTURED ACHAEMENID GOLD IN THE FORM OF IMPERIAL PERSIAN DARIC COINS, KNOWN BEFORE THE CONQUEST FOR THEIR CONSISTENT WEIGHT AND PURITY.
UPON THE DEATHBED OF ALEXANDER, HIS GENERALS ASKED TO WHOM HE WOULD LEAVE HIS EMPIRE. HE IS SAID TO HAVE WHISPERED, "TO THE STRONGEST." HIS GENERALS HASTILY GRABBED SECTIONS OF HIS EMPIRE FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR HEIRS AND CONSTANTLY WARRED ON EACH OTHER FOR SUPREMACY. THE COINS THAT BEAR ALEXANDER'S IMAGE INFLUENCED THE COINAGE OF HIS SUCCESSORS, THE
DIODOCHI
, AND THE FUTURE COINAGE OF THREE CONTINENTS.
CONTAINS: 4.27 GRAMS OF SILVER
18 MM IN DIAMETER
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