SHOWCASES VI, VII
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Because of the wide circulation of coins, the inclusion of images of kings, dynasts, satraps and later Roman emperors was a cheap and efficient method of letting their subjects know who was currently in power.

To depict a mortal on Hellenic coins was considered an act of hubris and the practice is not found until the death of Alexander the Great. The first representations of mortals appear on coins issued by satraps and rulers from Asia Minor, who minted coins according to Greek standards of typology and weight. These coins were circulated by Greek cities under Persian rule as tools both of private commerce and of the public economy, e.g. for the payment of taxes.

The diadochi (successors) of Alexander the Great, starting with Lysimachus, king of Thrace, depicted the deified Alexander as Zeus Ammon or as Heracles. These posthumous mints are yet another indication of the fusion of the cultures of the East and of Greece.

The first Greek portrait of a Greek mortal was created by Demetrius Poliorcetes and soon afterwards the diadochi, rulers of the Hellenistic kingdoms, adopted this eastern practice and put their own portraits on the obverse of their coins. Kingdoms with which they had commercial transactions then followed suit, and began to mint coins in accordance with the Greek model.

Roman emperors continued the Hellenistic tradition and made full use of coins as a source of information for their subjects, with a portrait of the emperor accompanied by his titles and achievements. The obverse of the coins of Rome and of the Greek cities and colonies almost always depicts the emperor and sometimes also members of his family.