Ok last one, these three coin's were at bottom feeder price, Anoob now i have some trading material..:yes: Parthian Kingdom Orodes ll 57- 38..B.C. Ar drachum Ob. diad. cuir. bust left, w/short beard, crescent behind head. Rev. archer enthroned right, holing bow. 20mm x 3.47g
Not sure what i'm doing wrong, everything froze, now i have two more, well its my last coin, sorry about the doubles..
Now we are cooking with Crisco!!! I still can't believe you made that "other" coin your avatar....just rubbing it in, right....That has got to be one of nicest I have seen...jeeze....going back and looking at the other thread gives me the willies.
I also wanted to add- I had read somewhere that some of these Persian "Drachms" of this period were overstruck on slightly earlier Roman Republican denarii. I also just picked up another Persian coin, rated Rare! I can't show it yet as it has not arrived yet. I have learned its bad luck to post a coin in transit. I did check the tracking and I should have it today or tomorrow, it is now in my town somewhere. Can't wait. Now Shah Eng I, has got me fired up.
parthian triple play! i was thinking about going for some chinese coins next time, but i may have to save up and nail me a parthian....the're so darn cool.
Some were, but not that common. More common was Sassanids taking THESE coins, hammering them flat to obliterate any details, and striking their new coinage on top of Parthian coinage. They say a large percentage of coins of Ardashir were coined this way, immediately after he was victorious. This coin has interesting centering. Its actually pretty good obverse centering, (not too low like many Parthains), but for some reason is not showing the bird behind the head which is the quick tipoff for this ruler.
There was a time when Parthians could be bought for less than Romans and I tried to get a sampling of common ones. That changed a lot when Fred Shore published his book on them. Now the book is hard to find and the coins are sometimes overpriced. They tend to be good silver but they come in few variations until you get into mints or really minor points. Many rulers (all the early ones) used the name Arsakes, founder of the dynasty rather than their own name so most are IDed by portraits. I suggest buying them when nice looking ones are available at reasonable prices. It always amazed me how the Parthians were able to avoid the evil debasement of silver that we see on Roman coins. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/parthar.html Most of my coins made it on my page above. The real rare stuff that is usually underappreciated are the little, ugly bronzes.
Same reason Sassanids were never debased. Always remember Persia was the critical link in the silk road. As such, their coinage was the default coinage for this major trade highway. They made money on tolls. IN order to facilitate this profit, they had to have good silver to be used along the road, (and of course to be paid back in). They wouldn't want to be paid their tolls in debased coins.
Does the toll structure survive as a text or do we have any idea how much they charged to travel the road? Did the payment include any services like protection? Today travel along that route is not a simple Sunday drive. I doubt it was better then.
Sogdian Traders has some information, but a lot more about chinese than persian due to the nature of the letters they found. Persia's major income was this trade. Anyone assaulting a trader was committing a treasonous act, since by paying the toll the trader was under the kings protection. I would dare say the road was much safer back then than today.
