A rare early Parthian bronze

[Parthicus]

Parthian Kingdom. AE (16 mm, 3.02 g). Arsakes II (Artabanos I) (c. 211- 185 BCE). Obverse: Beardless head of king left, wearing bashlyk. Reverse: Eagle right, Greek legend "Arsak[ou]" vertical on left side. Sellwood type 6 (unlisted reverse design). This coin: Pars Coins eSale 4 (June 16, 2023), lot 25.

Arsakes II, who may have had the personal name Artabanos, was the son and successor of the first independent Parthian king, Arsakes I (c. 247-211 BCE). Arsakes I had carved out an independent kingdom from some eastern territory of the Seleucid empire. In 209 BCE Antiochos III defeated Arsakes II at the Battle of Mount Labus. As a result, Arsakes was forced to accept his status as a vassal of the Seleucids. This included being forced to stop issuing coins in his own name. Assar dates the silver and bronze coins of this type (Sellwood 6) to the first few years of Arsakes II's reign, before his defeat by Antiochos III, while coins of a revised design may be from after 190 BCE, after Antiochos was defeated by the Romans at the Battle of Magnesia and Arsakes felt more free to assert his independence.

This reverse type (eagle right) is not listed in the standard catalogs of Sellwood or Shore, or in the Sunrise collection. However, the parthia.com website lists six examples in the database, making this a rare but not unknown type. Please post your related coins.

[Alwin]

There are two different reverses, one with a bucranium under the eagle, the other with a bucranium and a horse's head under the eagle. I recorded 8 specimens of the first and about twenty of the second (I did not record the specimens where it was not possible to determine the reverse). An interesting article about these bronzes:

https://www.academia.edu/88755909/An_Historically_Important_Countermarked_Dichalkous_of_Arsaces_II_Artabanus_I_211_185_BC_

[Al Kowsky]

4 hours ago, Alwin said:

There are two different reverses, one with a bucranium under the eagle, the other with a bucranium and a horse's head under the eagle. I recorded 8 specimens of the first and about twenty of the second (I did not record the specimens where it was not possible to determine the reverse). An interesting article about these bronzes:

https://www.academia.edu/88755909/An_Historically_Important_Countermarked_Dichalkous_of_Arsaces_II_Artabanus_I_211_185_BC_

That was a very scholarly article 😉.

[ominus1]

..i like coins with interesting hats...a bashlyk...kool! 🙂

[Alwin]

ARSACES II (211-185 B.C.)
Drachm S.6.1
Mithradatkart/Nisa
4.19 g - 16.5 mm
Diademed head left
APΣAKoY, Arsaces/Archer seated right, eagle at feet

Edited July 4 by Alwin

[ACCLA-Mike]

Super coin! The earliest example I know of was in a 1981 Münz-Zentrum Köln auction that was published by Buono Simonetta in 1986 - 5 years after the definitive Sellwood 2nd edition was printed.

Sellwood only listed one type 6 bronze hence the cataloguing of the eagle type as Sellwood 6.2v. Here is my Sellwood 6.2 (from Sellwood's collection); Sunrise 244 (this coin). Note the monogram to the left of the bow case. Assar assigns it to a Mithradatkart mint but there is no theta below the joined MT seen in the later Mithradatkart mintmark. 

Mike