The coinage of Alexander established a replacement style: the coin portrait became an virtually regular feature in Greek currency that was predominantly regal. The portrait, however, wasn't at first that of a living monarch. Philip II and Alexander were content with their names on their coins, of that the obverses showed, for Philip, Apollo and Zeus and, for Alexander, Heracles and Athena. Alexander added the title basileus (king) only once his Persian conquest. After his death his deified portrait appeared on the coins of Lysimachus in Thrace and on the early 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 equally place himself on his coins as Dionysus; in time the divine attribute was dropped, and therefore the ruler appeared as a mortal sporting solely the royal diadem. In Macedonia, Arrhidaeus, Cassander, and Antigonus still followed the varieties of Alexander; and the early coins of Demetrius I Poliorcetes (336-283) were without a portrait. Soon, but, his own portrait appeared, still with the horns that deify him. His successor had only sorts of deities.

Pyrrhus failed to seem on any of his in depth coinages, however the last two kings of Macedonia, Perseus and Philip V, left terribly fine portraits. The kings of Pontus, notably Mithradates VI, had an impressive 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 only the top and legend of Ptolemy I, except on sure special issues. Among the early Seleucids, Antiochus I was reluctant to drop the portrait of Seleucus I, but the portrait of the reigning monarch became the rule.

Once the vast issues of gold by Philip II, Alexander (under whom its value in relation to silver cheapened to 1:ten from 1:thirteen or additional), and Lysimachus, gold was but rarely struck. Silver was the final metal of coinage; the Attic commonplace, that Alexander had adopted for his tetradrachms, became the monetary customary of the Western world, and there was a nice increase in the bronze coinage. Egypt, however, kept to its own standards and to gold.

As the greater half of the Greek world was now ruled by the Diadochi, their numerous coinages naturally fashioned the most currencies of commerce. Third-century Athenian coinages were scarce except in bronze. In 229, however, Macedonia lost its supremacy over Athens, and friendly relations were established between Athens and Rome. Shortly once two hundred the abundant issue of tetradrachms of the “new style” began, that went on for slightly a lot of than a century, replacing the “archaic” Athena with a replica of the head of the Parthenos of the Athenian sculptor Phidias, and with an owl on the reverse perched on a Panathenaic amphora. Corinth went on hanging its stater until 229, when, with its surrender to Antigonus III Doson, king of Macedonia from 227, the long series came to an end.