KINGS OF MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’, 336-323 BC. Stater (Gold, 19 mm, 8.56 g, 12 h), Tarsos, struck under Balakros or Menes, circa 332/1-328/7. Head of Athena to right, wearing Corinthian helmet decorated with a coiled serpent. Rev. AΛEΞANΔΡOΥ Nike standing front, head to left, with her wings spread, holding laurel wreath in her right hand and stylis in her left; to left, trident head downward. Price 3006 var. (no human eye in the helmet). An attractive example of this earliest series of staters of Alexander, an unpublished with a human eye in the helmet. Minor flan fault on the obverse and the reverse struck from a slighty worn die, otherwise, about extremely fine.

This piece is noteworthy not only because it belongs to the earliest series of Alexander’s gold staters, but also for a small yet striking detail on the obverse: the die engraver has inserted a human eye into Athena’s Corinthian helmet, gazing upward. Although anatomically implausible, this feature is more than a mere artistic whim. It evokes representations of warriors shown not with helmets casually pushed back, as with Athena on Alexander’s staters, but fully helmeted and ready for battle - as seen, for example, in Kyzikos (cf. Fritze I, 81). In such images, the warrior is identifiable only by the eye peering through the helmet’s slit. Whether the artist responsible for our coin intended to allude to such a depiction, to suggest divine insight or an apotropaic (warding) function, or merely to add a decorative element remains uncertain. Nonetheless, the meticulous rendering of the eye, complete with pupil and eyelids, leaves no doubt that great care was taken with this detail