Alexander the Great coin

[ghipszky]

Finally a new coin for me.
Greek Kingdom of Macedon, Salamis Mint
336-323 BC
AE17mm, 5.4gr 12 o'clock axis
Alexander III The Great
OBV:
Alexander as Herakles Clad in Lionskin head-dress right
Rev
ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ
Club above legend with Sigma Alpha above, bow and quiver below with M below bow.
SNG DNM II, Salamis, 1049, Muller 1704

Hope this is the right attribrution for this coin.
Ginger

[Manzikert]

It is sigma alpha, 'SA' for Salamis above. Nice coin.

Alan

[Figleaf]

I'd just come to the same conclusion Another cross-reference: Price 3143 corr.

The attributes on the reverse are interesting. The club is a symbol for Heracles, apparently Alexander's personal favourite, but the bow is not Alexander's favourite weapon. He was a spearman.

The bow case is even more interesting. A bow and its strings should be protected from damp and wetness. A wet string is useless, a wet bow may break. That's why you have a bow case. On this coin, the bow is outside the case and the string fixed. The bow is ready for use. On other Alexandrian coppers, the bow is in the case. It must be strung before it can be used. I wonder if these are symbols for war and peace...

Peter

[Ancientnoob]

I know very little about the bronze issues of Alexander, personally I do not own any.

That doesn't stop me from saying its a nice coin, that I could easily find a home for .

[ghipszky]

Thanks you guys. This is the first time I had seen the bow not in its case. I think the silver ones have the bow in the case or the arrows in a quiver. I really didn't think about the details much when I was shown this coin. The inscription on the reverse was nice, the face outlined nicely, and the reverse altogether was nice. I was told by Steve Minnoch when he was mentoring me, that "if you can only by 2 coins a yr, be sure you can read all the letters and you can see the details". This is a lesson I have not forgotten. This coin was something I had to have.
I will fix the epsilon error in the post so it is correct and will fix it on the coins flip card.
Ancientnoob, I think I will be hanging onto this coin for awhile. It is my best Alexander coin. I have a 9mm limes coin with a tiny bit of silver outside hanging on.
This coin was found in the desert somewhere, so I was told. That drew me to the coin as well. I like coins that have been buried in the desert for a couple thousand years.
Ginger

[Figleaf]

The coin was struck on Cyprus, where there are no deserts, but the orange-yellow patina is called sand patina for a reason Contrary to what you may think, dry places in Central Asia are mostly sand-less, so what is now Egypt may well have been where it acquired its sand patina.

To give your coin some colour, why not read about Alexander and Cleitus the Black at the battle on the Granicus river ... and in Samarkand?

Peter

[ghipszky]

Interesting story Peter, thanks.  If I knew for sure where the coin was dug up, that would be interesting too.
Ginger