Alexander III BCE 336-323 minted under Philip III BCE 323-319
AR Drachm, 18 mm, 4.17g, Colophon mint
Price 1762
O: Hd of Herakles r in lion’s skin
R: Zeus std l holding eagle, AΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟY, fish in left field and spearhead in r to right of inscription.
Ex: Ancient Byways/Copper Penny
Ex: card accompanying coin indicates that it was purchased from Blanchard & Co by a prior owner, perhaps as an investment, card notes “Alexander the Great Drachm No. 79055”.
Blanchard & Co is a numismatic investment firm in Louisiana, USA, a call to them revealed that the ID number (as I suspected) did not mean anything to them. In fact, they have not sold these coins for 15 or 20 years and have no records relating to them according to the CSR who responded to my questions. The CSR inquired if I would like to know the value of the coin, if so I would have to send it to him and he would in turn send it out to an ancients dealer for appraisal.
I thanked him and said that it would not be necessary. A tetradrachm of similar origin had a different ID number from Blanchard, which obviously means nothing by way of provenance either.
Acquisition: 2007
Portion of map from:
map showing location of Colophon where this coin was minted, highlighted in red
Sear writes in his Greek Coins & Their Values (Vol. II; p. 399) that Colophon (spelled by him Kolophon) was "...situated several miles inland, on the river Halesos, Kolophon was an important city and claimed to be the birthplace of Homer. The famous oracle of Apollo Klarios was within its territory."
Peter Green in his Alexander to Actium (p. 59) notes that Epicurus (BCE 341-271/270) was residing in Colophon at the time the coin illustrated above was minted, noting that Epicurus resided there from BCE 321-306 after being exiled for a second time from Samos.
