Numismatic Art of Persia: The Sunrise Collection Part I: Ancient- 650 BC to AD 650. Bradley R. Nelson, editor. 2011. Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. (Lancaster). xliii + 430 pages. Currently available from the publisher for $125 plus shipping. I will start out this review with my main point: This is a magnificent book, going well beyond mere catalogue and providing much of the important background information that is necessary for a collector to appreciate their coins. If you are at all serious about collecting the ancient coins of Persia, especially the Parthian and Sasanian periods, you should buy a copy of this book as soon as possible. This book is organized around a private collection (the titular Sunrise Collection) of the coins of ancient (pre-Islamic) Persia. (The same collector also built an impressive collection of Islamic Persian coins, which was sold by Heritage Auctions in 2013.) The collection contains over 1000 coins, which include many rarities and are mostly in high grade. The collection is especially strong in Parthian (229 coins) and Sasanian (332 coins), with additional strong showings in Persis and the Achaemenids. Coins of some other dynasties that ruled all or part of Persia (Seleucids, Elymais, Characene) and neighboring civilizations (India-Parthians, Kushans, Huns, etc.) are not as thoroughly represented, which might leave dedicated collectors of those coins unsatisfied, though what is in the collection is very well presented. After brief introductory essays by the Collector and the Editor, the book settles into its main format. For each culture discussed, there is an introductory historical essay (often touching on numismatics as well), followed by a catalogue of the coins from the Sunrise Collection. Each coin is numbered and fully described, with life-sized color photographs of both sides. At the end of each section, there is also a spread of enlarged photos of selected coins, emphasizing particularly beautiful or significant coins. The sections of Persis and Sasanian coins also include tables giving transliterations and translations of the legends on all listed coins. (Legends of other civilizations' coins are given in the main descriptions.) While you could just use the photos and descriptions to attribute your own specimens, you would be doing yourself a great disservice if you don't carefully read the essays. The essays are by noted scholars in their respective areas, including G.R.F. Assar, Wilhelm Mueseler, Oliver D. Hoover, R.C. Senior, and Khodadad Rezakhani. I found the essay by Dr. Assar on Parthian history and coinage, which is over 40 pages long and explains many of his reattributions of Parthian coins, to be well worth the price of the book just by itself. The essays include extensive bibliographies for further research. If there is a weakness to this book, it is one inherent in any numismatic reference based on a particular collection: some specialties not well represented in the collection just aren't treated in as much detail as they would deserve in a truly comprehensive reference. But if you take this into account, the Sunrise Collection is still the best general work about ancient Persian coinage, and serious collectors will want to keep a copy handy next to the more specialized works by Sellwood, Shore, Gobl, etc. If you've read or used this book, please comment below and share your opinion.
I completely agree with all of the points made here, Parthicus. Well done. I held off buying my copy for a long time due to the cost, but eventually got it at a knocked-down price. I agree it ("Iran Under the Arsakids, 247 BC - AD 224/227") is a very important essay, quite helpful in my own recent research, and a decent encapsulation of Assar's work on Parthian history, kingship chronology and coin attributions which, prior to this, was frustratingly spread over so many articles across numerous periodicals. I know that Assar had mentioned in his obituary of Sellwood in 2012 that he would complete the 3rd edition of An Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia that Sellwood and he had been working on. I've heard nothing about that project since then, and so I suppose the essay and Parthian catalog in Sunrise will have to suffice for an indefinite period. (I also wonder if the SNP project derailed Assar's idea to complete the 3rd edition - I do hope he hasn't scrapped it)
Thank you @Parthicus for a great review. I do not have any of these coins yet, but this review has sparked an interest.
I enjoyed your review quite a bit. So much that it actually has me interested in reading the book even though I just recently received my first Parthian coin.
Thanks @Parthicus I have quite a collection of parthian and Sassanian now so I definitely get this book! I would be more interested to research Sassanian though more than Parthians.
Thanks very much for your extensive review. Still doubting if I will buy the book - shipping cost to Europe will be forbidding for a large and heavy volume. And good news that there might be a third Sellwood edition. Combining Sellwood II with the Parthia.com website is what I do to identify Parthians now. But Parthia.com has its flaws, missing pictures, and for instance, now CoinTalk has woken me up to mints, although there is a section on mints it is not coupled with identification marks.
Pellinore, until recently the "ateliers" section of Parthika.fr was the best resource for identifying (placing) Parthian mint monograms. I write "until recently" since as of late all of images, save one, on the page have disappeared. Those images included lots of coins from different mints, with close-up's of their monograms from below the archer's bow. I intend to write to Alwin, the site owner, about the missing images. Hopefully it's a temporary glitch. However the central pic on the page remains, and it's a good one, providing a map showing the location of the major mints of Parthia, as well as their associated monograms. Bear in mind that in addition to the many mint locations that appear here, there were also traveling/itinerant mints - their monograms appear at lower right. Also, it's important to keep in mind that, as Shore states it, "By the first century AD almost all (Parthian) drachms have the Ekbatana mint monogram" - no matter where they were minted. That monogram became standardized.
I guess we're in waiting mode, to see if it happens. I hope I'm wrong, but I wonder if the in-progress Sylloge Nummorum Parthicorum project, which is planned to ultimately consist of nine (very expensive) volumes - they started with Volume 7, which has been in print since 2012 - prompted Assar to change his mind. When it's complete SNP will document approximately 17,000 coins from the collections of a number of museums worldwide, as well as from Sellwood's collection. But, as important a resource as SNP will be, I think there is still a niche and need for a 3rd volume of Sellwood - for one-stop-shopping, as opposed to a nine volume set totaling well over a thousand dollars. This is from Assar's beautiful obit of Sellwood: "Up until his final days, David was involved in the revision of his An Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia in collaboration with me. He even wrote the 'Foreword to the Third Edition' on 11 May 2011, while waiting for some coins from his collection to be photographed at the offices of Spinks in London. Implementing the changes that he had approved, I shall complete the project in his memory." The Parthian section in Sunrise to some extent fills in the gap in the interim, but again I think there is a need for an updated edition of, as Parthicus puts it, "the more specialized work by Sellwood."
Although I love large well-illustrated books about collections, like the splendorous one about the William Kazan collection (of islamic gold) published by a Lebanon bank, or the various Sylloges, they are not so easy to use when you want to identify a coin. For that you need a catalog, and that is Sellwood's book. You can combine it with Parthia.com, which helps me out very often. For Sasanian coins there used to be the Grifterrec website of Tom Mallon, but that's gone. I'm still using Göbl, but his book is almost 50 years old. Karlsson is only about silver (though very clear and useful).
A quick update about Alwin's Ateliers (Parthian mints) page: Quick service. He has repaired it. It is outstanding, as is his entire site. Here's the page: http://parthika.fr/Ateliers.html
