MACEDON. Koinon of Macedon. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Medallion (Silver, 16 mm, 2.95 g, 12 h), in the names and types of Alexander III 'the Great' of Macedon. Beroea, time of Caracalla, 198-217, or Severus Alexander, 222-235. Head of Herakles (or Alexander the Great) to right, wearing lion skin headdress. Rev. ΑΛΕΞΑΝ-ΔΡΟΥ Lion walking right. AMNG III -, cf. 895-7. K. Dahmen: Alexander in Gold and Silver: Reassessing Third century AD Medallions from Aboukir and Tarsos, in: AJN 20 (2008), -, cf. 30-2. Extremely rare and of great historic interest. Mounted in antiquity in a gold bezel as a pendant, otherwise, very fine.



This remarkable piece belongs to a broader group of Alexander-related coins and medallions produced in Macedonia in Severan times and closely associated with the Koinon of Macedon and the games held at Beroea. Unlike the regular bronze coinage of the Koinon, precious-metal examples in gold and silver are all exceedingly rare; the celebrated Aboukir medallions belong to the same wider phenomenon. Their iconography reflects an intense contemporary fascination with Macedonia’s glorious past and, above all, with Alexander the Great.

The obverse of the present example is directly inspired by the silver coinage of Alexander III ‘the Great’, who is also named on the reverse, while the lion recalls imagery employed by Lysimachos (see also lot 623 below). Indeed, the head of Herakles is stylistically so close to that found on certain posthumous drachms of Alexander, particularly issues from Kolophon, that it is difficult to doubt that an ancient original served as the die engraver’s immediate model. The result is not merely a general evocation of the Classical and Hellenistic past, but a remarkably deliberate act of numismatic antiquarianism. Dahmen has similarly demonstrated that a number of types employed on the precious-metal medallions derive closely from Hellenistic prototypes.

Particularly significant is the manner in which the present piece was preserved: struck in silver, it was set into a carefully fashioned gold mount with a suspension loop, clearly intended to allow it to be worn. This provides unusually vivid evidence for the commemorative and honorific character of these extraordinary issues. At least in its mounted form, the piece was plainly not intended to function as ordinary currency, but rather as a prestigious object to be displayed and worn. This accords well with Dahmen’s interpretation of the related medallions. Earlier scholarship regarded them as niketeria, prize money awarded to victors in games honoring Alexander, but Dahmen has argued against this interpretation, suggesting instead that the great gold medallions were distributed as prestigious gifts to high-ranking visitors and officials at the festivals in Beroea, perhaps on the initiative of the Makedoniarch, while the smaller pieces in gold and silver may have been intended for a somewhat wider circle of recipients.

The use of precious metal is itself exceptional. Unlike ordinary provincial bronze coinage, these gold and silver pieces belong to a very different sphere of production and use. The great Aboukir medallions, significantly, conform to no regular coin standard, vary considerably in weight and fineness, and contain no reference to the reigning emperor; Dahmen therefore regards them not as regular imperial currency, but as exceptional commemorative objects probably produced on private or magisterial initiative in the milieu of the Macedonian Koinon.

For the Macedonian elites, the invocation of Alexander – and, in the present case, of imagery recalling both Alexander and Lysimachos – offered a powerful means of articulating regional pride and Macedonian identity within the competitive world of provincial festivals and elite self-representation. From the imperial perspective, however, such imagery was anything but problematic. The Severan age witnessed an extraordinary revival of interest in Alexander, most famously under Caracalla, whose intense imitatio Alexandri permeated both imperial self-representation and contemporary visual culture and provides an important backdrop for the celebrated Aboukir medallions. Under Elagabalus, the Koinon began to place Alexander prominently on its coinage, while under Severus Alexander both the veneration of the Macedonian king and the Alexandreia at Beroea are securely attested. The celebration of Macedonia’s most illustrious ruler thus complemented rather than challenged contemporary imperial ideology, allowing local pride and dynastic self-fashioning to converge within the broader Severan fascination with Alexander.

Whatever the precise circumstances of their production and distribution, these rare precious-metal medallions offer a fascinating combination of antiquarianism, regional identity, elite display and artistic virtuosity.