CELTIC, Northeast Gaul. Parisii. Late 2nd to mid 1st century BC. Stater (Gold, 26 mm, 7.00 g, 3 h), Mint A, Class 5. Celticized head of Apollo to right, with long, wavy hair, a floral ornament before and the neck decorated with a zigzag design. Rev. Disjointed and stylized horse to right, with a fan-like checker-board design behind; below, rosette of four pellets above diskeles. DT 83. Flesche 210 var. LT 7777. Sills 473. Very rare. A splendid example of this illustrious issue, beautifully struck on a charmingly unround flan. Good very fine.


The Parisii were a Celtic tribe living along the Seine river, where their capital Lutecia was chosen by Caesar as the place of assembly for the concilium galliae in 53 BC. Nonetheless, the Parisii joined Vercingetorix in the great Gallic uprising of 52 and their capital was burned down when Labienus marched against them later that year. The city was refounded in the early 1st century AD by the Romans on and around the Île de la Cité and named Lutetia Parisiorum, from which the modern name Paris eventually derived.