I got a nice coin of Sanatrukes it has amazing portrait but a spot of corrosion on reverse otherwise I love it sharp relief. What you guys think of this?
Very nice coin, of the distinctive Sellwood type 81. You're lucky that the corrosion spot is in an area that's not immediately noticeable, so it doesn't detract much from the attractiveness. Also, I should note that the older sources (Sellwood and Shore) attribute this type to Parthamaspates, the puppet king installed by Trajan in 116 AD. You are using the more recent assignment by Assar to Sanatrukes, supposedly a nephew of Osroes I who rebelled against the Romans but was betrayed by Parthamaspates. The reattribution does make some sense (the coin was issued from Ekbatana, while Parthamaspates' power almost certainly didn't extend that far), but Assar also bases it on the much later chronicle of the Byzantine writer John Malalas, which is generally not considered very reliable. Regardless, it's an interesting coin type, even if we're not sure who struck it.
I was pleased to have had that coin in my collection for 13 years. I'm glad you got it! Congrats, and enjoy.
@Parthicus thanks so much you are very knowledgeble on parthian coins. yes you are totally right the seller also mentioned the same history and details that the attribution to sanatrukes is a new one. personally I like parthian coins alot but if you ask me my favorite area to collect I would say sasanian . my sasanian collection is more than my parthian. specially I started to get huge interest in umayyad Arab sasanian coins . they seem to have alot of mint and very interesting eastern countermarks. do you also collect Arab sasanian?
@arashpour: Thanks for your kind words, I have collected Parthian coins for a while and learned a fair amount, though I think @Bob L. and @dougsmit here could probably defeat me if we ever held a Parthian coin trivia contest. I collect somewhat broadly, including ancient Persian (Achaemenid, Parthian, Sasanian) and early Islamic (including Arab-Sasanian), plus some Roman (especially coins referencing Parthia/Persia) and occasional other random coins. Here's a few of my Arab-Sasanian coins:
@Parthicus Very nice coins. I also collect Persian (Achaemenid ,Sasanian, Parthian, Islamic ) coins as well as Roman and Greek (mostly Seleucid rulers of iran) I really like the pashiz this is a rare one and quite expensive I dont have any pashiz I believe this is an Umayyad type. and the first one is Ubayd Allah Ziyad coin. I have Ubayd allah ibn Ziyad, Ziyad ibn abi sufyan, Muawiya and Hajjaj ibn Yusef and Abdallah ibn al-zubayr coins. Here is the images. 1. Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad year 59 Basra mint 2. Hajjaj ibn Yusef year 80 AH Bishapur mint 3. Muawiya I year 43 AH mint Darabjird 4. Abdallah Ibn Zubayr Fasa mint 60 AH 5. Ziyad Ibn Abu Sufyan year 47 AH Bishapur Mint
