Coin Prices
Alexander tetradrachms range from $50 to $3,000 depending on condition, rarity and desirability. It is best to research and attribute the coin before you buy it as sellers can make mistakes in cataloging coins. The cost difference between a quality Alexander coin that is a lifetime issue versus a posthumous one can be substantial. If you don’t have the reference book, try visiting WWW.COINARCHIVES.COM. If a seller references a coin, use that reference in the search box and see what comes up.
It is important to remember there are Alexanders that are genuine but may look different from the coin referenced. Martin Price in his Alexander book was not trying to document every Alexander coin but a representation mostly of coins in the British Museum. For example, for the mint of Perga, Martin Price documented 26 Alexanders in photographs and 33 Alexanders in descriptions. Hans Colin in his die study of Perga* documented 361 Alexander varieties made up of 73 different obverses and 217 reverses. If the coin is a slight variation of the referenced coin, a seller will often indicate that by using “var” after the reference .
Coin Sources
Alexander coins principally come on the market from existing collections or from newly discovered hoards. In the ancient world, there were no banks. If you had money and needed to keep it safe, you buried it. Sometimes the owner could not come back to claim it and then it sat in the ground 2,000 years until some farmer’s plough ran into it. Hoard coins go to auction houses and are mostly bought by dealers.
!! THIS IS THE COIN YOU WILL BE BIDDING ON!!
COIN IS IN A EXTREMELY FINE CONDITION
Lysimachos lifetime silver tetradrachm from Amphipolis, Macedonia, c. 288-281 BC, Alexander wears a Horn of Ammon (ram's horn, symbolic of the Greco-Egyptian composite god Zeus-Ammon) and diadem (headband of cloth and ivy leaves worn as a sign of royalty). Alexander is depicted with fiery eyes, as if he's about to enter battle, the eyes staring out of a deep shadow cast by the heavy brow. The intended overall effect is an image of a bold and aggressive leader animated with divine inspiration. This and similar renditions of Alexander on Lysimachos' coinage are widely regarded as among the most gripping portraits of Alexander on coinage.
This coin was given to me by my mother from my father's coin collection when my father passed away in 2006.
I have done research on the coin to see if it is a fake but did not find anything.
You can visit www.forumancientcoins.com./fakes
