The question of the meaning of the enigmatic harpagmos has tended to overshadow that of the last four words of Philippians 2:6 Philippians 2:6 has been difficult of interpretation since the Christological controversies of the fourth century. What is proposed here, however, is based not so much on doctrine as on the actuality of Philippi in the first century CE. Philippi was in Paul's time a Roman colony, and possessed a provincial mint issuing low value coins. These coins of course fulfilled their normal purposes as currency, but the images on the obverse and the reverse of each piece also served as a form of imperial propaganda. Copper coins issued at Philippi during the first century CE bore on their reverse an image of which Philippians 2:6c is an apt description, creating an unavoidable association in the minds of those to whom Paul addressed the letter. The contrast between the imperial exaltation depicted on the coin and the total abasement of Christ on the Cross was apparently noticed by Chrysostom. In one of his homilies on Philippians 2:6 he compared the behaviour of the genuine sovereign with that of the usurper, who must always be clothed in the robes and signs of the office to which he has no title. Christ, come among us as human person, awaited upon his Father's vindication for his exaltation, which he thought inappropriate to the accomplishment of his saving task. Such an interpretation would fit well into the context of the numismatic evidence, of Philippi in the first century CE, and of its church. The meaning proposed here for the final noun phrase of the verse supports a translation for harpagmos which agrees well with other independent occurrences of the noun in Hellenistic writings.