What to notice
The lion skin
The head on the front is Herakles, identified by the lion skin drawn over his head. The catalogue identifies the hero, rather than a named portrait of Alexander.
Zeus and his eagle
On the back, Zeus sits holding an eagle and a sceptre. The thunderbolt in the field and the mark beneath his throne help identify the issue.
Alexander’s name
The Greek lettering ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ means ‘of Alexander’. His authority is present even though the portrait is a mythological hero.
The two-minute story
The world before Rome
This drachm belongs to the final years of Alexander’s reign, when his conquests had connected the Aegean world with an empire reaching far into Asia. Miletos was one of the cities of the Greek-speaking coast of what is now Turkey. A coin from its mint gives this vast history a specific place.
Its images bring heroic strength and divine authority into the same small object: Herakles on one side, Zeus on the other, and Alexander’s name beside the seated god. That is one of the pleasures of learning to read coins. An apparently familiar face becomes a statement about power, identity, and the world an issuer wanted people to imagine.
The distinction between a lifetime and a later Alexander issue matters here. His coin types continued after his death; this example is catalogued to approximately 325–323 BC, under Philoxenos. That attribution places the object within the king’s own lifetime, at the beginning of our historical journey.
The personal thread
Why this coin belongs here
This is the collection’s Greek starting point: a direct link to Alexander’s lifetime, with a mint on the Turkish coast that gives the story a connection to future family travel. Its small size makes the scale of the history particularly striking.
A question to share
Could Alexander himself have held this coin?
It’s a tempting thought. This coin is catalogued to the final years of his lifetime, but we have no evidence that he ever held it. Its ancient owners remain a mystery. What survives is a small piece of Alexander’s world, more than 2,300 years later.
Collector record
The attribution, physical details, and documented history of this specimen.
- Authority
- Alexander III of Macedon, reigned 336–323 BC
- Issue
- Struck under Philoxenos; catalogued as lifetime
- Dimensions
- 17 mm · 4.22 g · die axis 11h
- References
- Price 2088; ADM I, Series I
- Acquisition
- CNG Electronic Auction 618, lot 82 · 7 October 2026
- Catalogue condition
- Good VF
The date, mint, official, and lifetime attribution follow the auction catalogue. Earlier ownership is not documented here.