Stater - Philip III Arrhidaeus Babylon

Philip III Arrhidaeus was Alexander the Great's half-brother — intellectually disabled, likely epileptic, and installed as king by the Macedonian infantry immediately after Alexander's death in Babylon in June 323 BC as a compromise candidate against the claims of Alexander's unborn son. He never governed in any meaningful sense. The Babylon mint, still operating on the immense bullion stocks captured from the Achaemenid treasury at Persepolis, continued striking coinage in Alexander's established types under the regents Perdiccas and later Antipater.

Philip III was murdered on the orders of Olympias in 317 BC, ending this brief issue series. Price P178 belongs to a closely studied group attributable specifically to the Babylon mint by die linkage.