ALEXANDER THE GREAT SILVER TETRADRACHM – LIFETIME ISSUE OF BABYLON OVERSTRUCK ON ANOTHER ALEXANDER TYPE TETRADRACHM – XF NGC GRADED GREEK COIN (Inv. 18505)

$1,450.00

18505. KINGDOM OF MACEDON. ALEXANDER III, THE GREAT, 336–323 BC.
Silver Tetradrachm, 17.15 g, 27 mm. LIFETIME issue of Babylon, ca. 325–323 BC.
Obv. Head of young Heracles right in lion skin headdress. Rev. ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, Zeus enthroned left, holding eagle and scepter, kylix in left field, monogram above M below throne.
Price 3654.
Ex Salton Collection, likely acquired in the 1950s–1960s when Mr. Salton owned a numismatic firm in New York.
NGC graded XF, Strike 3/5, Surface 4/5, “overstruck.”

This is an extremely interesting and perplexing coin since it appears to be a late lifetime tetradrachm of Alexander the Great from the mint of Babylon that has been overstruck on another tetradrachm of Alexander with the same imperial types of Heracles and Zeus. Traces of the host coin’s reverse type (the shoulder and arm of Zeus holding his scepter) are visible above the eye of Heracles on the obverse while traces of the host’s obverse type (the face of Heracles) appear behind Zeus on the reverse. The question is what purpose could there have been in overstriking the same types? As a lifetime issue the only host coins available would have been other, earlier lifetime Alexander tetradrachms and these seem to have been able to circulate throughout Alexander’s empire. Perhaps there is some administrative explanation that is now obscure. It is definitely a coin worthy of further research.