Parthicus

I won this group lot of 2 Parthian drachms and 3 Bactrian silvers (2 square drachms, 1 obol) in the latest Stephen Album auction. Just for fun, I thought I'd see if anyone can guess why I was interested in this particular lot. Please be specific (i.e., not just "Because you like Parthian coins.")

(photo borrowed from seller because I have trouble photographing tiny coins) (historical section contains re-used text from an earlier post of mine on CoinTalk)In 457, the Sasanian king Yazdegard II died. His oldest son, Peroz, would by custom be the successor, but Peroz was stationed as governor of Sistan province in central Asia, far from the capitol of Ctesiphon on the Tigris. In Peroz' absence, his younger brother seized the throne and began to reign as Hormazd III. Peroz was able to obtain help from the Hephthalites to wage civil war, and by 459 seized Ctesiphon and captured Hormazd, ending the civil war. Accounts differ on whether Peroz executed his brother or pardoned him; regardless, much of his reign would be spent in war. He first subdued a rebellious feudatory in the Caucasus. Next, he attempted peace with the Kidarites who had invaded parts of Transoxiana by offering his sister in marriage to the Kidarite king. However, Peroz tried to cheat and instead sent a low-status woman in her place. When the Kidarites found out, they moved to open warfare, but the Sasanians were successful and forced the Kidarites out of Transoxiana. A seven-year drought and famine struck from 464 to 471, and Peroz is credited with limiting the amount of death and suffering by careful management and sending relief supplies to the affected areas. Despite their earlier aid in bringing him to the throne, he fought three wars with the Hephthalites. Twice he was captured and had to pay huge ransoms for his release; the third time, in 484, he was killed in battle.Drachms of Peroz are fairly common, however, this is the much scarcer obol denomination. It follows the usual Sasanian pattern of being struck on a thin flan, and thus feels almost weightless in hand. The mintmark of BBA indicates the Court mint, which was based in the capitol of Ctesiphon but traveled along with the king. I have a fondness for Parthian and Sasanian fractional silver (all of which is scarce to rare), so I was happy to obtain this piece. Please post your coins of Peroz, or whatever else is related.

I just showed it recently, but it's too appropriate for today to skip: A lifetime portrait denarius of Julius Caesar, from Jan.-Feb. 44 BCE:

It may not be "terribly nice", but I paid exactly $1K (plus shipping and insurance) for my lifetime Julius Caesar denarius, purchased from JAZ Numismatics' private auctions on CT in 2020:

Hey John, just want to add my voice in hoping you recover soon. I've had my own health struggles the last few years with a poorly-understood recurring form of pneumonia, so I definitely empathize. Meanwhile, here's one of the many coins I bought from you in your CoinTalk auctions, a coin which needs no introduction:

From my family history, I know that all 4 of my great-grandparents on my mother's side were born in Sicily and emigrated to the United States. On my father's side, two emigrated from Calabria (the "boot-tip" of Italy) and two were born in the US, 1 of "irish" and the other of "English" ancestry. (We don't know much about these mysterious Irish and English ancestors.) And the results of my Ancestry.com testing: So, 74% Italian and 26% British Isles, which is pretty darn close to the expected 75%-25% (and surely well within any reasonable error bars). The "Italian" even correctly picked up mostly Southern Italian, including both Sicily and Calabria as likely regions. For the rest, I show less Irish than expected, and a fair bit of Scottish (the highest non-Italian portion, in fact). Well, there was quite a bit of movement between Ireland and Scotland, so they're genetically pretty similar, and my supposed "English" ancestor may well have been more Scottish than English- who would ask too closely in America? So, no big surprises for me, mostly confirmation of what I already knew.

There's quite a few varieties of Augustus' Signis Receptis coinage. Clearly he wanted to make sure everybody knew what he had accomplished. Here's a variety showing Mars carrying one of the recovered standards: The reign of Phraatakes and Musa (2 BCE- 4 CE) was relatively short, as they were overthrown by the Parthian nobles. Many Parthian kings had married their own sisters, but marrying your own mother was apparently just too far...

This coin of the Lycian dynast Mithrapata (c. 390- 380 BCE) is written using Lycian script, which was used for the extinct language Lycian (part of the extinct language family of Luwian, formerly found in much of Anatolia): I have a write-up on the "other site", which goes into more detail: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/lycian-dynasts-coin-in-extinct-script.387836/

Parthian Kingdom. Susa mint. AR drachm (3.51 g, 17 mm). Phraates IV (38-2 BCE). Obverse: Diademed bust left, eagle carrying wreath behind head, nothing in front. Reverse: Seated archer right, standard Greek text around, mint symbol underneath bow. Sellwood 52.20. This coin: Ken Dorney Auction 14, lot 68 (January 31, 2023).(historical section below contains some reused text)Phraates IV (reigned 38-2 BCE) was a son of the king Orodes II (57-38 BCE). Orodes' preferred heir was Pakoros, but unfortunately Pakoros was killed in battle in 38 BCE, forcing the distraught Orodes to choose another heir. Phraates, however, would prove a poor choice, promptly murdering his father and his surviving brothers (to prevent any other claimants to the throne) and exiling various of their supporters. In 36 BCE, the Roman triumvir Marc Antony led his troops through Armenia and into the Parthian client state of Media Atropatene, but Phraates attacked Antony's rear and forced him to retreat through Armenia and into Syria, suffering heavy losses along the way. Antony returned in 34 BCE, and captured the king of Armenia by treachery, but he was forced to withdraw in 33 BCE to deal with Octavian. Not long after this, a Parthian nobleman named Tiridates attempted to usurp the throne and had some success, but was ultimately forced to flee to the Romans (carrying as hostage a son of Phraates). In 20 BCE, a peace conference with the Romans resulted in the return of the son, as well as the gift of a Roman slave-girl called Musa who quickly became the favorite courtesan, and then wife, of Phraates. She bore a son who was known as Phraatakes (Little Phraates). In 2 BCE, Phraatakes and Musa conspired to kill Phraates and seize the throne, after which... well, I've already written about that story over on the other site, if you want to know more:https://www.cointalk.com/threads/if...-dont-you-just-marry-her.350979/#post-3911792This coin comes from one of the scarcer Parthian mints. Susa, in southwestern Iran, is a very ancient city, with evidence of habitation prior to 4200 BC. It is mentioned in the Bible and plays a key role in the Biblical story of Esther. It was used as the winter capital for the Parthian kings, but despite this its output of coinage was quite modest. However, this coin was described in the original auction listing as being from Mithradatkart, which is a much more common mint city for Parthian coins. (Ken Dorney has graciously said that he doesn't mind me pointing out his cataloguing error.) I noticed during the auction that the mintmark was wrong for Mithradatkart, and once I had the coin in hand confirmed that it was indeed from Susa. This highlights the importance of researching coins for yourself, and not taking the dealer's attributions as gospel. Please post your coins of Phraates IV, or coins from the Susa mint, or coins that were misattributed by the seller.

Thanks @DLTcoins for bringing this to my attention. I'm not entirely convinced by the reading of "ShPWR" (the "W' in particular doesn't look quite right), but it is at least plausible. (insert standard rant about the problems with Pahlavi script.) ShPWR isn't on the standard lists of Sasanian mintmarks, but given how many mintmarks they used that isn't a very strong objection. I will include it in my holder as an alternate reading of the obverse.

(picture borrowed from seller because I had trouble photographing this coin) Sasanian Kingdom. AE pashiz (15 mm, 1.69 g). Yazdegard I (399-420). Obverse: Bust of king right, inscription in Pahlavi script "ShMS" at right. Reverse: Usual Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants, eleven stars around. This coin: Pars Coins Auction 34, lot 107 (January 23, 2023).Yazdegard I (399-420 AD) was the son of Shapur III (383-388) and brother of Vahram IV (388-399). His three immediate predecessors had all been killed by high-ranking nobility (which still included many of the Parthian noble families, nearly two centuries after the last Parthian king died) and conflict with the nobles would continue in his reign as well. He also came into conflict with the Zoroastrian priesthood for his considerable toleration of both Christians and Jews in his realm; indeed, some sources call him "the sinner", though Christians and Jews referred to him as a new Cyrus the Great, and Yazdegard himself took the title Ramshahr, "peacemaker in [his] realm". Yazdegard maintained good relations with the Eastern Roman Empire, and was declared a guardian of Arcadius' young son, the future Theodosius II. He died around 420 in the northeast (in the traditional homeland of the Parthians), probably murdered by the nobility although accounts differ. We do know that the nobles tried to prevent Yazdegard's sons from taking the throne, but one of them, Bahram V, with help from an Arab army was able to succeed his father.This is a decent specimen of Sasanian bronze, but what really intrigued me were the obverse inscription and the reverse stars. The reading of the inscription as ShMS seems pretty definite; while the first letter could possibly be read as S instead of Sh, I think I can see the initial starting line of Sh, which should be absent on S. Now, what could this mean? The seller suggests it could stand for the Arabic word Shams, meaning "sun". While the sun does have a role in Zoroastrian religion, so honoring it on a coin makes sense, why would Yazdegard use the Arabic word, rather than the Persian word for sun, "aftab"? (Some Arab-Sasanian coins spell Arabic words in Pahlavi script, but the portrait style is very clearly Yazdegard I, so we can rule out a much later Arab-Sasanian origin of this coin.) On the reverse, the use of stars around the border is not surprising. However, we can clearly count 11 stars, which is a number with no obvious (to me, anyway) significance in Zoroastrian religion or Persian culture. The seller suggests that it might stand for the seven Amasha Spenta (seven minor celestial beings in Zoroastrian religion) plus the four fundamental elements. I suppose this could be the case, but would prefer stronger evidence before committing myself to this interpretation. In any case, this is an interesting little coin and worthy of further study. Please post your theories, or whatever related coins you have.

I can't get excited about Athenian owls, but that seems to be a fairly common "unpopular" opinion. I've been collecting ancients for nearly 30 years, never owned an Owl, don't plan to. I also only made a very half-hearted attempt at a 12 Caesars set. I have silver for the more common, bronze for the ones whose silver is scarce, and am completely missing Otho. He was utterly insignificant in the grand scheme of Roman history, so I can't motivate myself to pay a lot for a coin of his (even if his wig is pretty hilarious). It's a very arbitrary grouping of rulers anyway, just because Suetonius wrote an entertaining book about them doesn't make it an exciting collection group to me. It's not solely numismatic, but I hate, with a hugely over-inflated passion, the Wade-Giles system of transliterating Chinese. I think I may have a repressed childhood trauma, when Wade-GIles ran over my dog. 😭 But Wade-Giles still shows up sometimes in numismatic discussions, and I have to quickly figure out the Pinyin equivalents.

@Kamnaskires: I can't imagine why that tetradrachm looks familiar to you 🤔 (Note to the uninitiated: I bought this coin from Bob a couple of years ago, so naturally it looks familiar to him. Just a little joke on my part.) @Spaniard: Yes, that is indeed an under type on the reverse of the tetradrachm. Many of Vonones' tets are overstruck on tets of Phraatakes and Musa, and on this coin a fair bit of Phraatakes' face survived the restraining. The overstrikes always seem to be on Phraatakes and Musa tets, not on the far more abundant coins of Phraates IV, so it's possible that it was a sort of revenge by Vonones against his father's killers. As for the popularity of Parthian chalkoi, I'd agree that rarity is important. I probably wouldn't have been interested in this coin if it were, say, a common piece of Orodes II in the same condition. @Sulla80: Yes, it's interesting that Vonones used the same reverse type on all three denominations. (His only other reverse type is a chalkos that features just the Ekbatana mintmark for design.) His coins were innovative not just in including the king's name. @ACCLA-Mike: Nice coin, I think your example is actually nicer than my OP coin.

(photo borrowed from seller because I had trouble photographing such a small coin) Parthian Kingdom. Ekbatana mint. AE chalkos (1.17 g, 12 mm). Vonones I (8-12 CE). Obverse: Diademed bust of king left, Greek legend before and above "Basileus Onwnhes" (King Vonones). Reverse: Nike walking right, Ekbatana mintmark before. Sellwood 60.10, Shore 564. This coin: Pars Coins Auction 34, lot 53 (January 23, 2023).Vonones I was the eldest son of the Parthian king Phraates IV (38-2 BC). Around 10 or 9 BC, he and three of his brothers were sent to live at Rome. The Romans depicted this as "submission" of Parthia to Rome, but it also served to clear the way for Parthian succession by their much younger brother Phraatakes. In 2 BC, Phraatakes and his mother Musa murdered Phraates and seized the throne. That exciting tale of intrigue, murder, and incest deserves its own write-up, which I've given before over on CoinTalk ( https://www.cointalk.com/threads/if...-dont-you-just-marry-her.350979/#post-3911792 ). After the overthrow of Phraatakes and Musa in 4 AD, the Parthian nobles installed a new king, Orodes III, in 6 AD. However, they soon afterwards got rid of him for "excessive cruelty" (and considering how cruel some of the other Parthian kings were, he must have been a monster if that was the reason for his downfall). The Parthian nobles now asked Rome for one of the sons of Phraates IV to be returned as their king, and Vonones was duly sent. Vonones, however, had become much too Westernized during his stay at Rome, and he no longer cared for the manly Parthian pastimes of hunting, feasting, and horsemanship. The nobles summoned another member of the royal Arsakid family, Artabanos (IV), who was serving as king of Media Atropatene (roughly modern Azerbaijan), who attempted to overthrow Vonones but initially failed. A couple of years later Artabanos tried again and this time successfully deposed Vonones, who fled to Armenia and served for a time as the Armenian king. Vonones was removed from the Armenian throne about 17 AD (the exact date varies by source) and remanded to the custody of the Roman governor of Syria. After he attempted to stir up trouble among tribal chiefs in the Mesopotamian frontier near Parthia, he was sent farther away, to Cilicia. In 19 AD he bribed his guards and attempted to flee back to Armenia, but he was killed before reaching the frontier. A son of Vonones, Meherdates, would later stage his own rebellion in Parthia in 49-51 AD.The coins of Vonones I stand out in the Parthian series for the king's unusual choice to list his full personal name in the legends, instead of just the dynastic name of Arsakes. This is a great boon to historians and numismatists, as it gives a solid anchor in the assignment of coin types to specific kings. While this coin is not very well preserved, I bought it because it is rather rare (Shore rates bronzes of Vonones I at rarity "R" in his Rarity and Value Guide) and it completes my denomination set for Vonones I, as I already have a tetradrachm and a drachm: Please post your coins of Vonones I, or whatever else is related.

An excellent group @Finn235, lots of coins I would be proud to own. For #4, the Eastern SIstan coin, I wrote an article on the "other site" a couple of years ago about my own example: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-cartoonification-of-khusro-ii-is-complete.316004/#post-3074569

Here's a barbarous Constantine I that I quite like:

Arab-Sasanians. AE pashiz (2.66 g, 21 mm). No date (c. late 600s- early 700s CE). Obverse: Cartoonish crowned bust derived from Sasanian prototypes, Pahlavi legend before bust LWBAK (current), uncertain legend behind. Reverse: Standing figure wearing flat headdress, hands extended out in prayer posture, uncertain legends to either side. Gyselen 88. This coin: Pars Coins Auction 31 (October 31, 2022), lot 354.As I've discussed before, as the early Islamic Caliphate expanded out of its Arabian homeland, it initially copied the coin designs of its recently conquered enemies. In former Sasanian territory, this mainly consisted of silver drachms, which continued to bear Sasanian designs with just the addition of Arabic legends. Bronze coinage in the ex-Sasanian territory was more varied, however, with numerous varieties of both obverse and reverse designs. On this coin, the obverse design is derived from standard Sasanian portraiture, though with a simplified execution. The reverse type, however, is novel for Sasanian coins, and shows a figure standing upright and holding their hands out in a gesture of prayer. Unfortunately, the legends aren't very readable. The clearest part is before the bust and seems to read "current', which is found on some other coins and presumably is meant to validate the coin for circulation. This seems to be a rare type- only one example is listed by Gyselen in her 2000 catalogue. This is not a very pretty specimen, but the reverse type is interesting, and I kind of like the artistic style of the obverse, it reminds me a bit of Celtic coin art. Please post whatever related coins you have.

Here are two related coins I've bought in the last few months. One was acquired at the Baltimore Whitman Coin Expo in October 2022, while the other is one of my first coin purchases of 2023. As it happens, both are early Kushan, both are small in size, and both are fairly scarce. Hope you enjoy. Coin 1. Kushans. AR obol 11 mm, 0.45 g). Slightly crude copy of Heraios type, likely by Kujula Kadphises (c. 50-90). Obverse: Diademed bust right. Reverse: Soldier standing right, blundered Greek legend. MACW 2840-2843. This coin: Purchased from Marc R. Breitsprecher, January 2023. Coin 2. Kushans. Kapisa mint in Kabul valley. AE 12 mm. Wima Takhto (c. 90-113). Obverse: Shiva-Hercules hybrid figure standing, holding trident and lion skin, tamgha of Wima Takhto behind. Reverse: City-goddess standing holding cornucopia, to right flower-vase. MACW 2921-2922. This coin: Purchased at Baltimore Whitman Coin Expo from Tamco Numismatics (October 2022).The Kushans were originally one of five semi-nomadic tribes that constituted the Yuezhi confederation, which lived along the northwestern border of China. During the second century BCE the Yuezhi were forced to migrate west, into Bactria and nearby territories. Eventually, the Kushans conquered the other four tribes to assume leadership. The first true Kushan King is considered Kujula Kadphises (c. 50-90); we know the names of a few earlier Kushan rulers as part of the Yuezhi, but very little of this early history is known except in broad outline. The Kushans would quickly become a wealthy and important kingdom, controlling major trade routes between China, India, and Persia/Rome. They issued an abundant coinage in both gold and in bronze, though after a few scarce issues of the Yuezhi and (according to Joe Cribb) Kujula Kadphises they seem to have not issued silver coins. These coins depict an extensive and very mixed pantheon, including Indian, Iranian, Greek, and Central Asian deities, and even some scarce types depicting both the Shakyamuni Buddha (the historical Buddha) and the Maitreya Buddha (the future Buddha). The Kushan Kingdom broke apart in the 3rd century CE, with multiple independent local Kushan rulers and some territories acquired by the new Sasanian Empire of Persia. The remaining Kushan territories were lost to the Kidarite and Hephthalite Huns in the 5th century CE.The silver obol above has a somewhat disputed attribution. There are some rare silver tetradrachms bearing the same obverse bust with a reverse inscription in Greek "Heraios, tyrant of the Kushans". Some silver obols of the above type have a shorter but legible Greek inscription "Heraios Kushan". Coins of this type have been assumed to belong to the late portion of the Yuezhi period of Kushan history. However, Joe Cribb has assigned the coinage like my example (with blundered legends) to the early part of Kujula Kadphises' reign. If this is so, then this is the only silver coinage of the Kushans. The small bronze also has its own mysteries. Mitchiner lists it as a coin of "Soter Megas" (the second Kushan king and son of Kujula Kadphises, and who used only the title "Great Savior" on his coins) and with a denomination of "AE drachm (?)". The coin seems too small to be a drachm; I prefer to leave it as just an AE12. An inscription discovered in the 1990s, plus some scarcer coin types, confirmed that the king "Soter Megas" used the personal name Wima (or Vima) Kadphises. Interestingly, Mitchiner states that on this coin there is a Kharoshthi letter "Vi" to the right of the deity on the obverse. Unfortunately this is off the flan of my specimen, but it does help to confirm the Soter Megas- Vima Takhto equation. I rather like the portrait on the obol despite the heavy wear; the remaining bits of dark toning nicely accentuate the details of the face. The small bronze is not very pretty, but it is a scarce and historical type and was pleasantly cheap at just $12.50. Please share your related coins.

The collecting hobby I have a hard time understanding is rare wine collecting. Now, I can certainly understand wine lovers (of which I am not one, sadly) wanting to enjoy rare and expensive wines. The problem is that, to fully enjoy wine, you must drink it, thus destroying it. When a rare bottle is sitting in your wine cellar, there's no way to experience how delicious it tastes without making it disappear. At least with rare books, there may be reprints or online scanned pages, so you could still read the text without damaging your copy. I can look at my coins as much as I want without damaging them (if I take reasonable precautions against environmental contamination.)

I'm currently reading this book: While it's not a catalogue of coins, it does discuss Kushan coins in some detail, as is necessary in discussing Kushan history, religion, and iconography. It's overall organized as the author telling his life story, and the many adventures he's had and interesting people he's met during his decades spent studying the Kushans. Fascinating reading, hopefully it tides me over until the British Museum catalogue of Kushan coins comes out this spring.

A very nice Parthian-based list! I voted for #1 and #7 as my favorites, but there are no losers on this list. Here's my own example of type #7:

Don't know why I missed this interesting and informative thread when it came out. I also have an example of the Arghun coin for comparison: The "MWOI" reference is to Mitchiner's "World of Islam", the third volume of his "Oriental Coins and Their Values" series. It is in the same format as the better-known Ancient and Classical World (MACW) and Non-Islamic States & Western Colonies (MNI) volumes. It is photo-illustrated (about 4000 photos), which is a big plus. However, it is not nearly as comprehensive as one might hope- some series receive extensive coverage, others little or none. Some photos aren't clear, and crucially, I've heard from more experienced collectors that there are some important mistakes in attribution that sneaked into the published text. An okay reference if you happen to have it, but I wouldn't expend too much effort seeking out a copy.

Yep, it's King Huvishka riding an elephant, with goddess Mao reverse. I think the coin with lion is from either Taxila or Pushkalavati (it's a little out of my expertise). Nice coins!

Here's a couple of inexpensive coins I bought at the Whitman Baltimore show in October. A small Kushano-Sasanian bronze of Hormazd Kushanshah (c. 270-300) for just $15: And a square AE trichalkon (22 x 22 mm) of the Indo-Scythian king Azilises for $25: I bought a bunch of other inexpensive coins, but those two stand out to me in terms of detail-to-price ratio. In general, a lot of Eastern coins sell cheaper than their Greco-Roman equivalents, due to fewer competing collectors. Of course, you really have to do your homework, but isn't that the fun part?

A nice and eclectic mix (sort of like my own Best Of lists 😀). If you want to learn at least the basics of reading Arabic coin inscriptions, you're in luck, as Umayyad and Abbasid coins are probably the easiest to read, both because they are so formulaic (so once you know the pattern you only have to read a few words to attribute) and the Kufic Arabic script is usually pretty clear and well-engraved. I recommend the book "Arabic Coins and How to Read Them" by Michael Plant. I also really liked the face on the shield of the Attalos I stater.