2017-06-29 Thu

Alexander was born in 356 BCE and was taught by Aristotle to become one of the greatest military generals. He captured most of current Asia and ruled over a kingdom between the Ionian sea and Himalayas before he was just 30 years old. He ascended the Macedonian throne after his father Philip II died in 336BCE.

He defeated the Persians within two years of his regime. Alexander used goddess Athena’s image on his gold coinage as she was considered as the protector of Hercules and other heroes. She is featured on his coins wearing a Corinthian helmet decorated with a coiled snake.

He revolutionised coinage by establishing a single currency for his entire empire. Local coins were replaced with imperial ones. After the Persians were defeated, a lot of silver and gold bullion were looted from the treasuries at Babylon, Sardes, Susa, and Persepolis. The Macedonian kingdom was 500 silver talents in debt. The entire debt was cleared when Alexander claimed 120,000 silver talents worth of bullion.

When the empire became rich with precious metals, he thought of striking the gold distater - the largest Greek gold coin issued till that time which equalled 40 silver drachms. Veteran soldiers were awarded for their efforts with a silver talent (6,000 drachms). After the new denomination was introduced, this payment was completed using 120 gold distaters. An average citizen used to earn a daily wage of two drachms, making gold distaters extremely expensive. They couldn’t be used for normal spending. Almost all of them were melted down after a relatively small mintage, making them rarer than silver coins featuring the same design. The reverse features Nike, the goddess of victory holding a wreath and a stylis, the mast cross-arm of a ship. A thunderbolt and the mint mark of Aigai are also featured.