Stater - Philip III Arrhidaios Abydos

Philip III Arrhidaios was Alexander the Great's half-brother — intellectually disabled, politically manipulated, and ultimately murdered on the orders of Olympias in 317 BC. He never exercised real power; regents ruled in his name from the moment he was proclaimed king at Babylon in June 323 BC. Gold staters issued under his name continued the Alexandrine coinage types almost without interruption, a deliberate continuity designed to signal legitimacy to an empire already fracturing. Abydos, controlling the Hellespont crossing, was strategically critical enough to maintain active mint operations throughout this turbulent succession period.