THRACIAN KINGDOM. Lysimachus (305-281 BC). AR drachm. NGC VF Alexander III Great Portrait

THRACIAN KINGDOM. Lysimachus (305-281 BC). AR drachm (17mm, 1h). NGC Choice VF. Posthumous issue of Colophon in the name and types of Alexander III the Great of Macedon, ca. 301-297 BC. Head of Heracles right, wearing lion skin headdress, paws tied before neck / AΛEΞANΔPOY, Zeus seated left on backless throne, right leg drawn back, feet on stool, eagle in outstretched right hand, grounded scepter in left; crescent right above lion head left in left field, Π below strut.

Alexander the Great's meteoric 13-year career of conquest left the classical world profoundly transformed by the time of his premature death in 323 BC. In the immediate aftermath, Alexander's generals carved up his immense new empire into spheres of influence, although maintaining the fiction of a unified leadership. Territorial disputes soon led to civil wars, with the rival warlords contending for supreme power. Chief among these was Lysimachus, who at various times controlled Thrace, Macedon, and much of Asia Minor. For the obverse of his silver his coinage, Lysimachus claimed the mantle of Alexander by choosing the image of the conqueror himself, now shown as a god wearing the ram's horn of the Greco-Egyptian deity Ammon. The image is one of the earliest true portraits to appear on a coin, and one of the finest. The reverse, depicting Athena enthroned, likewise proved extremely influential throughout history, forming the archetype for the figure of Britannia on modern English coins.