Watch List notes:

JDL Collection Part II: Geek Coins
NORTHERN GREECE. KINGDOM OF MACEDONIA.

ALEXANDER III THE GREAT, 336–323.

Distater, Macedonian mint 330–320, Attic standard, AV 17.20 g.
Obv. Helmeted head of Athena right, hair falling down in ringlets, helmet ornamented with serpent on bowl.
Rev. ΑΛΕΞΑΝℵ?ΡΟΥ Nike standing left, holding wreath in right hand and stylus in left; in left field, trident.
Literature
SNG Copenhagen 622
SNG Fitzwilliam 2094
C. L. Müller, Numismatique d'Alexandre le Grand, suivie d'un appendice contenant les monnaies de Philippe II et III, Copenhagen, 1855, 104
M. J. Price, The Coinage in the Name of Alexander the Great and Philip Arrhidaeus, London/Zurich, 1991, 171 M.-M. Bendenoun, Coins of the Ancient World, A portrait of the JDL Collection, Tradart, Genève, 2009, 16 (this coin)
Condition
Rare and in an exceptional state of preservation. Well-struck on a very large flan and good extremely fine.

Provenance
The Numismatic Auction Ltd III, New York 1985, lot 69.
The Athena-Nike staters of Alexander were issued in great quan- tities both during his lifetime and after his death, yet his distaters were never struck on anything but a modest scale. Even so, mer- cantile inscriptions from Amphipolis show that they were familiar enough to have earned the nickname 'big staters of Alexander' (stat¯eres megaloi). As Hatzopoulos and Le Rider note, it is clear that those inscriptions refer to Alexander distaters, for in one case a transaction is dually recorded in the amout of 170 regular staters and 85 stat¯eres megaloi.
The date at which Alexander introduced his Athena-Nike gold coinage is still a topic of debate. The current view is that the event post-dates 333, and that these distaters may have been introduced as late as c.325 B.C. under the oversight of Antipater.
The inspiration for the design of this coinage, which remained popular long after Alexander's death, has been the subject of much discussion. It would seem unlikely that the head of Athena was intended as a nod to her great city, which by then had succumbed to the will of the Macedonians; more likely it was intended to honor the divinity herself. Portraying the goddess of wisdom and war would have been well advised on the eve of the great military enterprise that Alexander had envisioned. The image of Nike holding a ship's mast generally has been seen as an allusion to a naval accomplishment. Some commentators, in- cluding Martin Price, suggest it recalls the Greek victory over the Persians at Salamis in 480 B.C. Yet, others see it as a reflection of Alexander's actions, perhaps his crossing of the Hellespont in the spring of 334 or his capture of Tyre in the summer of 332.
Troxell places the issue of the present coin, with the downward-facing trident head, in her first series (group A),
issued in Macedon. She notes that two other symbols are used in that inaugural group, a cantharus and a fulmen – a symbol combination that is shared by an early group of Alexander's staters from a Macedonian mint, most likely Amphipolis or Pella. Die links are well-recorded for group A distaters, including instances of reverses with different symbols sharing the same ob- verse die. Two subsequent groups of distaters are documented by Troxell, her groups B and C; since none of her three groups are known to be joined through die links there is a standing presumption that their production was separated either by time or minting location, or perhaps both.