Scarce Parthian diobol, ex David Sellwood collection

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Parthicus, May 10, 2018.

  1. Parthicus

    Parthicus Well-Known Member

    Here's another of my recent auction wins:
    Pakoros II diobol.jpg
    Parthian Kingdom, Persis mint. AR diobol (13 mm, 1.35 g). Pakoros II (c. 78-120 AD). Obverse: Bust of king left. Reverse: Seated archer surrounded by four-line blundered pseudo-Greek legend, degraded Ekbatana mintmark. Sellwood, "New Parthian Coin Types" Numismatic Chronicle 1989 Type 8, Shore 402-3, Sunrise 436. This coin: Triskeles Sale 23, lot 256; ex David Sellwood collection.

    (Obligatory note on Parthian king numbering: Pakoros II is called Pakoros I in some recent sources, based on giving the old "Pakoros I" a disqualification as not counting as a true Parthian King [the story is long and complicated]. Also, the "Artabanos III" briefly mentioned below is now considered "Artabanos V". Please don't ask me to explain why.)

    Pakoros II was the son of the Parthian king Vonones II (51 AD) and a Greek concubine. When Vonones died, his older son Vologases I became the king of Parthia, while Pakoros was sent to serve as the sub-king of Atropatene (roughly covering what is now Azerbaijan). When Vologases I died in 78 AD, his son Vologases II was named as his successor. Pakoros raised a rebellion against his nephew and was successful by the following year. Not much is known about the reign of Pakoros II, but he did face several challengers for the throne, including Vologases II and Artabanos III (c. 80-90 AD). The date of Pakoros II's death is uncertain. Most sources have put the end date for his reign at 105 AD, but in the catalog of the Sunrise collection G.R.F. Assar convincingly argues that Pakoros II must have reigned until at least 110/111 AD, and may have retained some territory in Iran until as late as 120 AD. About the only other notable fact of Pakoros II's reign is that he sent an embassy to China in about 101 AD.

    The story behind this coin is interesting. The Parthians never issued very much fractional silver, and for a long time it was thought that they completely stopped during the reign of Orodes II (57-38 BC). However, around 1984 a hoard of Persis silver coins entered the market which included some previously unknown fractional silvers with typical Parthian-style reverses. David Sellwood catalogued these coins in a 1989 article in the Numismatic Chronicle (available free on JSTOR) and attributed various diobol subtypes to Vologases I, Vologases II, Pakoros II, and Artabanos III. The size (fractional silver, after a gap of over a century from the last issue by the main Parthian mints), artistic style, association with known Persis types, and find spot (the hoard was supposedly found near Shiraz, in Fars Province [Persis]) all point to these coins being issued in Persis, despite the Ekbatana mintmark found on the reverse. Presumably the celators copied the reverse type from Parthian drachms, which were at that point all bearing the Ekbatana mintmark, and either didn't know or didn't care that the thing under the archer's bow was supposed to be a mintmark. The reason for this issue of Parthian-style coinage, at roughly the same time as the main Persis series, remains mysterious.

    I won this coin in the latest Triskeles auction for $90 on an estimate of $100, which is a very low price for this type. The Triskeles auction notes that this is from the David Sellwood collection, although this is definitely not the same specimen that appears in the plate of his 1989 article. Even without the provenance, it is still a pleasant and scarce coin. Post your related coins here.
     
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  3. ominus1

    ominus1 Well-Known Member

    kool coin and story~history! i don't have any of these Parthian types in my collection at the moment..
     
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  4. Orfew

    Orfew Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus

    Great writeup and a very interesting coin.
     
  5. DBDc80

    DBDc80 Numismatist

    Very nice! I still need to get some parthian fractional silver..congrats!
     
  6. Sulla80

    Sulla80 Well-Known Member

    @Parthicus, a nice writeup and an interesting coin. I am reviving this thread to share a second Parthian diobol (Pl. 42,1), clearly not the most popular or common coins on CT with only one thread related. This one has very different portrait style
    Vologases I Diobol.jpg
    Parthian AR Diobol, Vologases I (51-78 AD )
    Mint: Uncertain mint in Persis
    Obv: bare-headed bust left with medium beard wearing diadem with loop at the top and two ends; wavy hair; two-line neck torque has no ends; circular border of dots
    Rev: archer seated right on throne holding bow; somewhat blundered Greek inscription reading, with emendations, ΟΛΙΓΑCΟΟ(Υ) ΤΟΥ ΚΥΡΙ(Ο)Υ ('Vologases the lord')
    Size: 1.29g, 12mm
    Ref: Shore 379

    "We cannot tell whether the use of 'lord' rather than 'king' implies a subordinate status; probably the rulers themselves were uncertain of the exact implications and it would be unwise to try to read too much into it."

    - Sellwood, Numismatic Chronicle, 1989 https://www.jstor.org/stable/42667578
    Shore:
    Vologases I Diobol ref.jpg
     
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  7. Parthicus

    Parthicus Well-Known Member

    Very nice coin @Sulla80 ! Parthian fractional silver is definitely a very niche area, but I enjoy it, and I think that if one makes passionate and informative posts about the coins one enjoys, others will also find them interesting. I sometimes read a post here on an area I would normally have no desire to collect, but the background is so well presented that I can't help getting interested.

    By coincidence, the next new coin that I am about to post is (sort of) a Parthian fractional silver. What could I possibly mean by "sort of"? Stay tuned!
     
    Sulla80 likes this.
  8. Sulla80

    Sulla80 Well-Known Member

    :) I enjoyed your latest post on 1/3 drachm, "the hard way"!
     
  9. Bob L.

    Bob L. Well-Known Member

    Here's my die match to Sulla80's Volo I, from the KOINON article on Parthian fractions:
    Volo I dio_KOINON.jpg
     
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  10. Glen Lindwall

    Glen Lindwall New Member

    Interesting coins. I have several as part of my (absurdly) extensive collection of Persis coins. I note that these diobols may have affected the weight of Persis coins in that around the time that these coins appeared the weight of the Persis hemidrachm declined to about the weight of the Parthian diobols. I have charted my coins by weight. Note that the years are very approximate and deliberately spread out for each ruler. Any given point could easily be off by twenty years or more. But the trend is clear. In particular, the "hemidrachms" of Unknown King II weigh the same as these "diobols" and are dated about the same time or just slightly after many of them. Interestingly, the Persis hemidrachms may have declined in weight a bit before the drachms.
    upload_2019-4-21_12-11-27.png
    And here are a couple more Persis mint diobols of the Parthian kings:
    upload_2019-4-21_12-19-59.png
    Vologases II (above) and Artabanos IV (below)
    upload_2019-4-21_12-20-45.png
    And below I include a coin of Osroes I that Sellwood included in his paper on New Parthian Coin Types as being from an uncertain mint (Persis? or Ekbatana?). I got this as part of a group lot of ex Sellwood coins. This was the plate coin and was noted as the (at that time, at least) only known example. Every once in a while an unexpected little treasure comes along.
    upload_2019-4-21_12-27-30.png
     

    Attached Files:

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  11. Bob L.

    Bob L. Well-Known Member

    Welcome, Glen. That's a nice bit of research. The chart you created does indeed clarify the trend over time. Well done.

    Congrats on the Osroes I hemidrachm.That is quite an important coin. I believe that since Sellwood's 1989 essay in The Numismatic Chronicle #149 was published, two more have come to market - one now residing in the extensive Schatz collection.
     
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  12. Valentinian

    Valentinian Well-Known Member

    Mine is much like the OP coin, but with more legend visible on the left and less on the right.

    PakorosIIdiobol.jpg
    This diobol is 13 mm and 1.23 grams.
    Shore 403 page 152. Pakores II (78-105 AD)
    Sellwood (NC 1989) type 6, coin 8, plate 42.8 (this type, not this coin). Pakores II.
     
  13. Sulla80

    Sulla80 Well-Known Member

    Thanks @Bob L. I had not seen the KOINON article until you mentioned it and I appreciated the overview, the thought provoking questions (e.g. Parthian? or some other sub-group? local propaganda?...), and the compilation of types.
     
  14. Charax

    Charax New Member

    Pathicus, this is definitely a coin from David Sellwood's collection. I catalog it as Sellwood 1998.8 Num. Chron. 149, pl. 42, 8 (type 6)

    I photographed it March 2002 at David's home. Also, it was photographed in 2004 by a British Museum contract photographer for the Sylloge Nummorum Parthicorum project. After David's passing, it appeared in Pars Coins, VCoins (27 Oct 2017), item PCW-PA1411, then in your April 2018 Triskeles purchase.

    I assume it appeared unpictured in one of the group lots sold in dispersal of the Sellwood collection:
    • Baldwin's Auction 90 (24 Sep 2014, Sellwood Collection part 1)
    • CNG E-Auction 340 (3 Dec 2014, Parthian Coins from the Sellwood Collection)
    • CNG E-Auction 341 (17 Dec 2014, Selections from the David Sellwood Collection)
    • New York Sale 34/Goldberg 83 (6 Jan 2015, Sellwood Collection part 2)
    • Baldwin's Auction 96 (23 Sep 2015, Sellwood Collection part 3)
    • Baldwin's Auction 100 (27 Sep 2016, Sellwood Collection part 4)
    Regards,

    Chris Hopkins
    www.parthia.com
    www.sylloge.org
     
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  15. Parthicus

    Parthicus Well-Known Member

    Thanks Chris for confirming the David Sellwood provenance. I never buy coins just for the provenance- there has to be some merit in the coin itself- but it is nice to know that Sellwood himself once owned one of my coins.
     
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