Gold stater of the Parisii

Gaulish gold coinage began by copying the gold of Philip II of Macedon, and generation by generation it broke the face of Apollo down into spirals and curves. The gold stater of the Parisii, who lived around present-day Paris, is held to be the summit of that abstraction. The whirling hair and the leaping horse are counted a masterpiece of Celtic art, and the pieces themselves are held by the coin cabinet of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris and by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gold coin was gold to spend and, at the same time, wealth that showed power.