Struck under Philip III c322-319 BC after the death of his 1/2 brother Alexander the Great. ••• Obverse bust likeness of Alexander the Great instead of Apollo. Deifying Alexander.
Struck at the Colophon Mint, extremely rare. •••
A splendid Hellenistic portrait of the finest style, a superb specimen. •••
While the types of this gold stater issue conform to the dies for Philip II (359-336 BC), the magnificent obverse die of this late posthumous issue bears a portrait of “Apollo” that is quite distinctive and clearly depicts a real person. Coins struck from the same or almost identical obverse dies during the same period have also been attributed to Colophon. Comparison with the coins of Lysimachus and surviving portrait sculpture leaves no doubt the portrait represents Alexander the Great himself. The issue seems to be one of the first under Philip III. It was intended to legitimize the divided Macedonian regime by Alexander’s generals after his death in Babylon under the figurehead rulers- Philip III Arrhidaeus, Alexander’s slow-witted half-brother, and the infant Alexander IV, his posthumously born son. As such the “Philip” named on the reverse should probably be seen as referring to Arrhidaeus rather than the traditional attribution to Philip II.