Stater - Ptolemy I Soter Euhesperides 299 BC - 294 BC

Reverse

Deified King Alexander III, wearing aegis draped over left shoulder, holding thunderbolt in right hand and reins in left hand, riding left in chariot pulled by four elephants. Laurel branch in exergue.

Script: Greek

Lettering: ΠTOΛEMAIOY BAΣIΛEΩΣ

Translation: Kind Ptolemy.

Comment

Ptolemy's early coinage is modeled on that of Alexander and carries the conqueror's image and name. The image of the elephant, which Macedonian armies first encountered on the battlefield in northern India, was prominently employed. The first tetradrachms and rare gold staters struck by Ptolemy during his satrapy depict Alexander wearing an elaborate elephant-skin headdress. After Ptolemy declared his own kingship in 305 BC, Alexander's head on the obverse was replaced by his own unequivocal portrait, making him the first Hellenistic monarch to take this step (though both Philip II and Alexander had used portraits of themselves "disguised" as the deities Zeus and Heracles). This amazing gold stater, struck early in his reign, shows Ptolemy wearing about his neck the protective aegis of Athena. The reverse depicts Zeus in the car of a chariot pulled by a team of four Indian elephants, alluding to Alexander's victories and India and the growing importance of these animals as "living tanks" in Hellenistic warfare.