CENTRAL EUROPE. Helvetii (?). Late 4th to early 3rd century BC. Stater (Gold, 19 mm, 8.50 g, 11 h), 'type de Soy au canthare', imitating Philip II of Macedon. Laureate head of Apollo to right. Rev. ΦΙΛΙΠΠOY Charioteer driving biga to right, holding reins in his left hand and kentron in his right; below the horses, kantharos. D. F. Allen: The Philippus in Switzerland and the Rhineland, in: SNR 53 (1974), 3. DT 2001. Flesche 123. LT -. Leu 4 (2019), 92 (same dies). SLM 375. Extremely rare and among the finest of a very few known examples. Tiny scuff on the edge and with a very light scratch on the reverse, otherwise, good extremely fine.



The exact minting place of this remarkable coin remains uncertain. Delestrée and Tache assign it to Armorica in northwestern France, whereas Allen considered it a Helvetian issue. Recorded findspots range from Brittany and Central France to Switzerland, Baden-Württemberg, and Rhineland-Palatinate - an exceptionally broad distribution that suggests the issue served chiefly as a medium of trade. The present specimen is of very early style and must have been struck by the late 4th or, at the latest, the early 3rd century BC, at a time when the first Macedonian prototypes from Pella were reaching Celtic Europe.