Silver Tetradrachm of Ptolemy I, Alexandria, Egypt, 321-319 B.C. Silver, 16 g. Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Loan from the Trustees of the Arthur Stone Dewing Greek Numismatic Foundation. Photo: Anna Kovacs, HUAM. Copyright President and Fellows of Harvard College.

This exhibition presents a selection of coins from the Arthur Stone Dewing Greek Numismatic Foundation and from the Art Museums’ collections. It retraces the development of Macedonian regal coinage from the first at-tempts to represent a ruler— the king as horseman—to portraiture based on actual physiognomy. The idealization of Alexander the Great led to the individualistic rendering of his successors. Coins became vehicles of political propaganda to justify a ruler’s power.