I have decided to start into Parthian coins.... First one ever. AR Drachm (20.5mm. 3.81g.) Ekbatana Mint Pakoros I 78-120AD obv. Diademed bearded bust left rev. Archer seated on throne with bow Sellwood 78.3 CNG event
Parthians are a weird series, either you like them or despise them. I go hot and cold at times, having to be "in the mood" for them. I still have about 80 percent of obtainable drachms, far less than the tets. I do love the bashlik issues of Arsakes I and II, Phriapatios, and Mithradates I. I find those, in Central Asian headgear, fascinating.
I have been told by a very respected Persian dealer that he believes every "gold Parthian coin" in existence is a forgery. So, not a lot of chances for a gold only collector to collect Parthian pieces. Sassanians have some, mainly ceremonial pieces, though kind of pricey. I haven't pulled the trigger on one yet, though I am always sorely tempted when one like my avatar comes up for sale...…..
I was shocked too when I saw a non-gold from Panzerman! Parthian coins are fun, but never really "clicked" for me, probably because Vonones is the only (?) Parthian king to use his personal name on his coinage. I have always mused at the fact that the Parthians, known for their silver coinage, have no known gold coins whereas their contemporary Kushans just a little further east minted plentiful gold but no silver. Did the Parthians rely on imported gold, or did they just use obscene amounts of silver for major transactions?
Thanks for all the kind words! No I am not going all screwy. I like all forms of coinage. I was sitting on the fence for a while, but today I looked at some of the Parthian material on the CNG e-sale site.... decided to start collecting them. I like CNG since they grade strict/ but also list all details/ stuff like cleaning/ smoothing/ other flaws. I picked up a couple of really nice Greek archaic electrum examples too.
I really got turned off of Parthians with all the recent name changes and no simple resource to explain them. I bought the Sunrise book which I consider next to worthless in guiding through the changes it uses. It is particularly weak in the common types the rest of us are likely to have like your Sellwood 78.3 known then as Vologases III (and still listed that way in my collection which is almost certainly wrong on half the coins). My coin of Sellwood 78.3 was also known as Shore 413 (this coin) where it was still Vologases III. I do not know. Like yours, it is weak on two of the seven legend lines. I am calling this one Sellwood 78.4 but I do not know why other than it was so labeled in 1989 when I bought it. If I ever understood these, I have lost it now but I really believe that the ID's on all these are pretty speculative. Finally I have what I have listed as Sellwood 78.10 due to the small crescent above the bow and crude style. Again, don't take my ID's as worth anything. I really like Parthians but am currently taking a break until I find a reference I feel is up to date. It may exist but I have not been looking. Others have mentioned the fact that we are surprised you bought this coin. I agree with the concern that all gold Parthians are fakes and there are fake silver ones as well which concerns me since I have not kept up with the ID points on these either. I am more surprised that you spend huge amounts of money on gold coins but bought a rather low end example. It looks like a coin I would buy. These things do exist with decent centering and sharp strikes. Lately we have been seeing a number of the less common mints and some interesting coins but I don't have the budget to collect everything so these became rather inactive. One interesting characteristic of Parthian drachms is the number of them centered to the bottom on the obverse. You will pay extra if you want to see the bottom row of dots.
That was very informative, thanks for posting that I remember the same problems with my last collecting pursuit (rare butterflies/ moths) seemed every year, some Japanese expert would do a taxonomical revision of ssp./M+F forms/ drive me nuts/ always had to change my data labels
Will you all stop encouraging @panzerman. If he moves into bronze, there will be a lot of us in trouble.
The Persians controlled the upper Silk Road. Therefore, they had zero incentive to debase their silver coins since their revenue stream from tolls will be paid in the same coins. Given that this was their main federal income, silver was the main coinage for them. They never had much need for gold it seems, since they mainly needed the drachm denomination. They did have extensive copper coinage as well.
Welcome @panzerman to the Parthian community. I remember you mentioned possibly getting some Parthians in a post last month, but I doubted you'd follow through once you learned that there is no legitimate Parthian gold. (Probably. There was a hoard of alleged gold coins of Vonones I that was condemned as forgeries by the IBSCC, but I know that G.R.F. Assar believed them to be genuine, at least at one time; I don't know if he still maintains this, or if he has since changed his position. Also, there is a single gold coin (possibly fourree) found in an archeological dig that resembles a Sellwood 33 drachm. Given its discovery in an intact archeological site, it is not a modern forgery; but it might have been an ancient unofficial piece and thus not count as "true" Parthian gold. Here's the relevant parthia.com page: http://www.parthia.com/parthia_gold.htm ) As for Parthian copper coinage... yep, just forget about that, move along, nothing to see here The frequent revision of IDs is indeed frustrating. However, I try to look on the bright side, that the field is still attracting scholarly interest and there is still something new to learn. I sometimes feel the same way with fossils- the extinct mako-like shark we used to call Isurus hastalis changed to Cosmopolitodus hastalis, and is now believed to be more closely related to the Great White and has been renamed Carcharodon hastalis. And don't get me started on how the trilobite Phacops has become Eldredgeops...
@Parthicus, whatever happened to Dr Assar and Sellwood's collaboration to update Sellwood's standard? Did you ever hear how far they got with it, and if anyone was working on completing it? Btw, when I said 80% of the drachms, I meant rulers. All of the types? Heavens no....
Unfortunately I haven't heard anything on that project since Sellwood's death. Perhaps Dr. Assar felt that it had been superseded by the start of the Sylloge Nummorum Parthicorum and decided to quit? If anyone here would know, it would be @Bob L. You mean you didn't have 80% of all known drachm types? Sad... (In my first collection, I had over 50 different Orodes II drachms, and over 40 of Phraates IV, and both of them were nowhere near comprehensive for their rulers.)
Lol, um yeah. Like I said, I go into and out of them. I stay in Sassanid issues more for some reason.
