Every object in the Wulfing Collection deserves close examination and every object repays the attention given to it. In this inaugural entry of the series “In the Collection,” I would like to take a closer look at one of the coins in the Collection, a silver tetradrakhma (WC 148: https://johnmaxwulfing.wustl.edu/wc-148) issued in the name of Alexander III of Macedon. The coin (17.30g; 7:30h die axis) was likely struck in Macedonia, perhaps at the great city of Amphipolis, in the years immediately following the death of Alexander in Babylon (June 10, 323 BC), thus, c. 323-320 BC under the regency of Antipater. In this attribution I follow that of Martin Price, whose corpus of the coins struck in the name of Alexander held by the British Museum remains foundational. Price’s catalogue was the first numismatic book that I purchased (in 1992) and it proved essential in my formation as a numismatist and ancient historian. But after nearly thirty years in numismatics already, I still find coins such as this tetradrakhma enigmatic, fascinating, and important.
What is special and noteworthy about the Wulfing coin (Price 112) is, first, how it reveals the die-engraver’s skill and attention to detail. Because the coin was struck from fresh dies in high relief, and only moderately worn, the reverse reveals all five toes on Zeus’ left foot, for example. Moreover, Zeus’ toes project toward us a three-quarters’ perspective. We can also make out the eye of the eagle as it looks up to the god. The obverse displays how the engraver cut Herakles’ iris and pupil, also, with great care and positioned those parts of the eye so as to make it appear that Herakles is looking slightly upward. In the frontispiece to her critical 1997 work on these coinages, Hyla Troxell chose for her frontispiece an otherwise unidentified Macedonian tetradrakhma that shows even the lion’s eyelashes upon the pelt that Herakles wears as a trophy from his victory over the beast (i.e. the Nemean lion of myth)—such is the skill of these engravers.
Yet the style of this and other series of coins struck in Alexander’s name in Macedonia, especially the silver as opposed to gold and bronze, is at once distinct and bespeaks a concern to render some elements in a decidedly schematic fashion. The outstretched hand of Zeus on the reverse, for example, shows the entire palm to us, as if Zeus were shaking hands, rather than in profile, and the eagle does not grip his hand with its talons as we might expect from any bird at rest. The anatomical proportions of Zeus are not accurate from a modern perspective, while both Herakles and Zeus alike are rendered with a concern for maximum line and volume lest, it seems, we have any confusion for who they are. We might describe the style overall, therefore, as chunky or stiff, and we might even be tempted to think that it is primitive or untutored, but such an approach too easily dismisses the culture and values of those responsible for creating such art by not taking them seriously enough on their own terms. The fact that the engraver could render all five of Zeus’ toes in three-quarters perspective demonstrates, after all, that he could have done the same with Zeus’ outstretched hand.
