The coinage of Alexander established a replacement vogue: the coin portrait became an virtually regular feature in Greek currency that was predominantly regal. The portrait, however, was not at 1st that of a living monarch. Philip II and Alexander were content with their names on their coins, of which the obverses showed, for Philip, Apollo and Zeus and, for Alexander, Heracles and Athena. Alexander added the title basileus (king) only after his Persian conquest. After his death his deified portrait appeared on the coins of Lysimachus in Thrace and on the first coins of Ptolemy I in Egypt. It wasn't until 306 that a living king place his own portrait on his coins, when Ptolemy I appeared, still as god, with the aegis of Zeus. Seleucus I similarly put himself on his coins as Dionysus; in time the divine attribute was dropped, and the ruler appeared as a mortal wearing solely the royal diadem. In Macedonia, Arrhidaeus, Cassander, and Antigonus still followed the sorts of Alexander; and the early coins of Demetrius I Poliorcetes (336-283) were while not a portrait.

Soon, but, his own portrait appeared, still with the horns that deify him. His successor had only varieties of deities. Pyrrhus didn't seem on any of his intensive coinages, however the last two kings of Macedonia, Perseus and Philip V, left terribly fine portraits. The kings of Pontus, notably Mithradates VI, had a powerful series of portraits. The kings of Pergamum used the identical portrait throughout, that of the founder of the dynasty, Philetairus I, and also the Ptolemies in Egypt throughout their long series used solely the top and legend of Ptolemy I, except on sure special issues. Among the first Seleucids, Antiochus I used to be reluctant to drop the portrait of Seleucus I, but the portrait of the reigning monarch became the rule.

When the vast issues of gold by Philip II, Alexander (underneath whom its worth in relation to silver cheapened to 1:ten from 1:13 or a lot of), and Lysimachus, gold was however rarely struck. Silver was the overall metal of coinage; the Attic normal, that Alexander had adopted for his tetradrachms, became the monetary standard of the Western world, and there was a great increase in the bronze coinage. Egypt, but, kept to its own standards and to gold.

Because the bigger part of the Greek world was now dominated by the Diadochi, their various coinages naturally fashioned the most currencies of commerce. Third-century Athenian coinages were scarce except in bronze. In 229, but, Macedonia lost its supremacy over Athens, and friendly relations were established between Athens and Rome. Shortly after two hundred the abundant issue of tetradrachms of the “new style” began, that went on for slightly more than a century, replacing the “archaic” Athena with a copy of the pinnacle of the Parthenos of the Athenian sculptor Phidias, and with an owl on the reverse perched on a Panathenaic amphora. Corinth went on placing its stater till 229, when, with its surrender to Antigonus III Doson, king of Macedonia from 227, the long series came to an end.