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The many tribes of Northern Gaul, which covers parts of modern day France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland) used the stater of Philip II of Macedon (the Philippus) as the inspiration for most of their gold coins.
Individual tribes put their own spin on things, but the overall trajectory was the same as elsewhere in the Celtic word. The coins they were familiar with were copied, and then gradually abstracted until the coins had nothing obvious in common with the originals.
The Celtic coins from Northern Gaul can be broken down into three phases:
- First generation coins (c. 275 BC to c. 200 BC)
- Second generation coins (c. 200 BC to c. 125 BC)
- Third generation coins (c. 125 BC to c. 50 BC)
The first generation coins were just straight imitations of the Philippus. The Celts stayed close to the original design, to the extent that they copied the legend and mintmarks. Staters from this phase generally weigh over 8.1g.
The second generation coins started to veer away from the original Philippus design as the Celts tried out new ideas, but they remained recognisable. Most coins still feature an obvious head on the obverse, and a horse, chariot and charioteer on the reverse. Staters from this phase generally weigh between 7g and 8g.
The third generation coins are where the abstraction and new designs really got going. Staters from this phase generally weigh 6.5g or less.
We’ll go through these in a bit more detail in the next sections.
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