This was struck at the very height of Athenian power, after the defeat of the Persians at Marathon left Athens the dominant world power. This was the golden age of Athens, when Pericles, Thucydides, Phidias, Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Socrates were all contemporaries and the Acropolis was built. These coins were the world's accepted international currency — the ancient equivalent of a US $100 bill — until Alexander the Great. They circulated throughout the ancient world and were widely imitated.

No one quite knows the meaning of the enigmatic obverse design, with the two opposing faces. Some theories are the rising and setting sun; the two twins, Castor and Pollux; or the two branches of the Danube, which empties into the Black Sea at the ancient city of Istros. I'm inclined towards the last idea—or some other explanation involving the Danube—given the importance that the river must have had in the civic identity of the city.

The miniature portrait of Silenos in the background is a masterpiece all by itself; click here to see it in detail.

Not all that recent forgery (19th cent.?) of a Zuegatanian tetradrachm.

This was one of the very first ancient coins I ever bought. I spent $5. I spent weeks and weeks trying to attribute it. The general type was easy enough to ID, but I couldn't find this type in bronze, only silver, so I began to get excited that I'd discovered some huge, valuable rarity. Turns out instead to be an imitation of a silver tetradrachm, but it's still quite handsome. I'm baffled why whoever made this coin manufactured it out of bronze, not silver like the original, but maybe it was simply intended as a decorative copy, rather than represented as original.

The original coin was struck in the late 4th century BC, on the island of Sicily while it was under Carthaginian occupation. The coins struck by the preceding generations of Greeks are generally considered among the most beautiful ever created, and this coin—even though struck by the Carthaginian authorities—is designed along the same general model. The portrait on the front of the coin, for instance, although meant to evoke the Carthaginian goddess of Tanit, copies a Greek portrait of Persphone from earlier Sicilian coins. The reverse legend is in Punic script, not Greek, because Carthage was a Phoenician colony, not a Greek colony: MMHNT, which translates as "people of the camp." Presumably, then, these coins were struck for military reasons or for a military payroll.  

ANACS #YEU063 Graded Very Fine

 

Mazaios had been appointed satrap of Cilicia around 361 BC. Later, with the addition of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel to his territories, he became one of the Persian king's most powerful subordinates; during this period he put down a Phoenician revolt, which had the support of both the Pharaoh of Egypt, Nectanebo II, and 4,000 Greek mercenaries. For his services, Darius III promoted him to the overlordship of Mesopotamia and sealed it with the promise of marriage to the king's daughter, Barsine, or Statira. Famed historian Plutarch described him as “the greatest Persian after Darius.” This remarkable complement indicates that Mazaios might have simultaneously held the post of the Herzaraptis (the commanding officer of the Spearbearer’s Regimen) while serving as satrap.

At Gaugamela in 331 BC, Maizaios' extraordinary abilities did little to ward of the advance of Alexander III of Macedon, as the flight of the Persian king signalled the collapse of the Persian army and Macedonian victory. Maizaios withdrew his forces to protect Babylon, and on the assurance that the city would not be plundered, the city was surrendered. Mazaios proved himself indispensible to the new government through his hospitality and sagacity. Alexander III of Macedon appointed him satrap of Babylonia, the first Persian to be so rewarded by the Greeks. He continued to be rewarded with favorable appointments until his death in 328 BC. Alexander copied the reverse of this coin for his own tetradrachms, which were minted by the billions and became the standard coinage of the ancient world until supplanted by Roman coinage.

One of the other reasons I like this coin so much is that it is the nicest example I have of ancient Aramaic script.

Struck by Danubian Celts, imitating a drachm of Alexander the Great.

Lysimachos was a member of the bodyguard of Alexander the Great. In the division of the empire after Alexander's death, he was entrusted with Thrace and adjoining territory in the Euxine, and in the Battle of Ipsos in 301 B.C. he acquired northwestern Asia Minor. Like the other successors of Alexander, he first issued coins with the types used by Alexander, but in 297 B.C. he created new types, among them the obverse of this coin, one of the most influential images in Hellenistic coinage. The head is a portrait of the deified Alexander, with the royal diadem and the ram's horns that identify him as the son of Zeus Ammon. Lysimachos thus portrays Alexander as both his political ancestor and his patron god. The coins were issued at many mints, and their Alexander portrait type with its divine attributes provided the prototype for depictions of divine rulers in later Hellenistic coinage. The coins continued to be issued after the death of Lysimachos and in some areas were as common as posthumous coins of Alexander. The reverse refers more specifically to Lysimachos. In her right hand, a seated Athena extends her Nike, who crowns the first letter of Lysimachos' name. The gesture is a probable reference to his victory at Ipsos. The lion's head on Athena's shield may also refer to Lysimachos; the forepart of a lion was his personal device. He participated in lion hunts with Alexander and supposedly once killed a lion with his bare hands. The diadem and horns of Ammon are a sign of divinity and thus represent a change in the general public’s perception of Alexander the Great as no longer being a mere human but a god. This series is considered to have one of the most accurate likenesses of Alexander the Great.

Signed tetradrachm of Ptolemy I (Δ behind neck). Possibly struck in Cyprus.