Who Paid for the Alexander Coins?
Kevin R. Henke
September 15, 2022
In Henke (2022b), I summarize my conclusions on Alexander the Great:
“When looking at the archeological evidence in total, Mr. Lundahl also needs to ask himself why a Greek name (Alexandros) was inscribed numerous times in temples in Egypt, mentioned as a king in bureaucratic documents from central Asia, his military exploits discussed in Babylonian tablets and his name on countless coins spread throughout the region. Even without the five ancient histories, it’s obvious that there was a king named Alexander living in the 4th century BC that had a lot of wealth and power that extended from Greece and Egypt into Central Asia as demonstrated in Henke (2022a). The people in Egypt were simply not going to allow just any individual to walk into their temples and inscribe his name and image on at least 22 places (Bosche-Puche and Moje 2015). No one would put the name Alexandros on countless coins from India to the Mediterranean unless a powerful leader paid for it and had the power to enforce the order. Meanwhile, Mr. Lundahl can’t find a shred of evidence to support his belief in a Talking Snake and Moses.” [my emphasis]
Lundahl (2022p) then replies to this bolded section with a single, poorly worded and inadequate comment:
“A single paymaster is, as per Euro coins, not necessary.”
Earlier in Lundahl (2022p), he threw out additional speculations about the source of the Alexander coins:
“Kevin R. Henke: “How could a “something” order the minting of coins and then carry out that order?”
A club could have a chairman, and a deity could have a temple and a priest.
Kevin R. Henke: ‘How could “someone or something at the time of the coining referred to as Alexander” afford to mint all of those coins, have the power to do it, and have so much influence that those coins would be widely used from India to Greece and Egypt if he wasn’t a powerful and wealthy leader?’
It could have been a kind of common currency, by mutual agreement. Like the Euro currency. As you may know, neither Napoleon, nor Hitler introduced this, the politicians who did may have been more humane, but they were also, very certainly, more humdrum, and individually less powerful.”
Why would a diverse group of individuals from a broad area of Eurasia all decide to have a common currency by “mutual agreement”? Who would pay for such an effort and enforce it all the way from Greece to central Asia? Since when would any group of Eurasian leaders be so “humane” that they would all agree to a common currency? Why would they place the name Alexander on the coins unless he was an extremely wealthy and powerful leader? Why would people from India to the Mediterranean agree to a unified currency unless someone had the power and wealth to enforce it? How could an ordinary chairman of a club or a priest in a temple convince or force everyone in the religiously and politically diverse societies of India to Greece to comply with a single currency? As discussed in Henke (2022a), the trace elements in the Alexander coins indicate that the silver came from Macedonia, Babylon and other diverse locations. How could an ordinary individual, chairman, priest or a local king have enough wealth and power to mine silver from a broad area of Eurasia and why would they mint coins in the name of someone named Alexander?
The archeological evidence, when all of it is viewed in total, indicates that Alexander was an extraordinarily powerful and wealthy man that had influence from Greece to Egypt and on into central Asia. Certainly, the five histories provide important information on who he was as I have repeatedly said in Henke (2022b) and my other essays. However, without the archeological evidence, the Alexander the Great mentioned in the five texts could have been nothing more than a myth. There’s absolutely no reason to take the ancient texts or the communities that produced them at face value. Mr. Lundahl does not understand any of this.
Reference:
Bosch-Puche, F. and J. Moje. 2015. “Alexander the Great’s Name in Contemporary Demotic Sources”: Journal of Egyptian Archeology, v. 101, pp. 340-348.