FORVM`s Classical Numismatics Discussion Board
Numismatic and History Discussion Forums => Greek Coins Discussion Forum => Topic started by: Eric C2 on April 06, 2021, 09:26:10 am
-
It has been a while since I have last posted here, so please forgive me if this question is in the wrong spot on the boards.
So my question is: How can you tell whether or not a silver Tetradrachm was minted during Alexander The Great's lifetime?
There seem to be a lot of Tetradrachm available that are known to be minted post-humously, but I don't think I have seen any (in my limited experience) that are known to be minted in Alexander's lifetime.
Is there a way of identifying Tetradrachm minted in his lifetime?
Thank you for your kind assistance,
-
I think Martin J. Price's book Coinage in the name of Alexander the Great is what many people use to attribute Alexander tetradrachms mint locations and times.
PtolemAE
-
... I think Martin J. Price's book Coinage in the name of Alexander the Great is what many people use to attribute Alexander tetradrachms mint locations and times. ...
The catalog part of it is represented in the PELLA database: http://numismatics.org/pella/
But you have to be aware that many attributions of both, time and place, are rather good conjectures than exact knowledge :-\. For many variants we don't know for sure.
And you have even coins which are in some sense simultaneously lifetime and posthumous, because their minting began before 323 BC and ended after.
Regards
Altamura
-
Thank you both for your very helpful response.
-
... I think Martin J. Price's book Coinage in the name of Alexander the Great is what many people use to attribute Alexander tetradrachms mint locations and times. ...
The catalog part of it is represented in the PELLA database: http://numismatics.org/pella/
But you have to be aware that many attributions of both, time and place, are rather good conjectures than exact knowledge :-\. For many variants we don't know for sure.
And you have even coins which are in some sense simultaneously lifetime and posthumous, because their minting began before 323 BC and ended after.
Regards
Altamura
Your latter point is what always makes me wonder about many ancient Greek coin regnal attributions. For some we may be sure their production began and ended during a particular king's reign (e.g. coins related to a war or olympic games or other event with known dates), but for others it may be wise to take anyone's statement that 'this coin was made during the reign of this one specific king' with a healthy grain of salt. That said, I admire Price and other scholars who try to narrow down time ranges for coins with what little solid information is sometimes available. Those pesky ancient Greek mint managers left such poor records of all the important stuff we'd like to know :)
PtolemAE