Celtic coins found in Swiss bog

[guy]

 

 

In 2025, two Celtic gold coins were found in a Swiss bog, dating to the mid-third century BCE. These coins were struck after the Celtic sack of Rome in 390 BCE but before Caesar’s conquest of Gaul between 58 and 50 BCE, during a period when Rome's influence had not yet extended to the region. At that time, Celtic tribes such as the Helvetii, Rauraci, Boii, Insubres, and Taurisci still controlled the Alpine and trans-Alpine routes. Greek monetary influence remained prominent in the Western Alps.

The discovery in a wetland fits the practice of depositing valuable items as offerings to deities or ancestors.

The coins display Greek influence in their weight standards and imagery, Celtic reinterpretation through abstract motifs and local symbols, and demonstrate pre-Roman regional independence.

One coin is a gold stater weighing about 7.8 grams, and the other is a quarter stater weighing approximately 1.86 grams. These early Celtic coins, inspired by Greek gold staters from the time of Philip II of Macedon, feature the head of Apollo on one side and a two-horse chariot on the other, highlighting their Mediterranean origins. Yet they also show Celtic modifications, such as a minimalist rendering of the horse.

Here is a posthumous gold stater of Philip II, minted during the reign of Philip III (323-317 BCE), for comparison:

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The rare coins were unearthed largely on a hunch. Between 2022 and 2023, volunteer archaeologists with Archaeology Baselland, the local archaeological department, discovered 34 Celtic silver coins found in the same area — the Bärenfels bog near the municipality of Arisdorf. This prompted Wolfgang Niederberger and Daniel Mona, also volunteer archaeologists with Archaeology Baselland, to do follow-up investigations there in spring 2025, when they discovered the two gold coins, according to the statement

 

https://archiqoo.com/news/en/rare+celtic+gold+coins+discovered+in+a+swiss+bog.php

 

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/2-300-year-old-celtic-gold-coins-found-in-swiss-bog

 

Edited December 23, 2025 by guy