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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 5308510, member: 81887&quot;]Thanks!&nbsp; It was Pars Coins Auction 10.&nbsp; This was basically just a little extra bid for me- I was mainly interested in some Persis and Sasanian coins- so I was happily surprised to win this.&nbsp; I guess nobody noticed (or cared about) the scarce mint and just ignored a less-than-perfect Abbasid dirham.</p><p><br /></p><p>[USER=73165]@Paul M.[/USER] : I heartily second [USER=96898]@Orielensis[/USER] recommendation of Richard Plant&#039;s &quot;Arabic Coins and How to Read Them&quot;.&nbsp; I am also not able to speak or read Arabic at a practical level, but this book gives exactly what you need to figure out coin inscriptions.&nbsp; I also recommend another book by the same author, &quot;Greek, Semitic, and Asiatic Coins and How to Read Them&quot;, which covers a huge range of other scripts including Persian, Chinese (for cash coins), the many different scripts of India, and more.</p><p><br /></p><p>For Sasanians, the book I use the most is Robert Gobl&#039;s &quot;Sasanian Numismatics&quot;.&nbsp; Identification to a particular emperor is usually based on the king&#039;s distinctive crown (though the name is often also readable on obverse), mint and date are readable on reverse (for many issues, but the earlier coins don&#039;t have date or mint).&nbsp; Some useful websites:</p><p><a href="https://www.beastcoins.com/Sasanian/Sasanian.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.beastcoins.com/Sasanian/Sasanian.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.beastcoins.com/Sasanian/Sasanian.htm</a></p><p><a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Dates" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Dates" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian Dates</a></p><p><a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Mints" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Mints" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian Mints</a></p><p>(Note that attribution of mintmarks to specific cities is disputed, and different sources list different cities for the same mintmark.)</p><p><br /></p><p>For Parthians, I use Sellwood&#039;s &quot;An Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia (Second Edition)&quot; to determine type, and check with G.R.F. Assar&#039;s essay in the Sunrise Collection book to see the more recent attribution of types to particular kings.&nbsp; (Parthian history is poorly understood compared to Roman, and the Parthians mostly didn&#039;t put the king&#039;s name on the coins, so attributions will differ depending on which reference you use.&nbsp; Major auctions seem to have shifted to using Assar&#039;s IDs, though you do still see attributions based on Sellwood or Shore.)&nbsp; For online resources, parthia.com is still very useful, but hasn&#039;t had many updates in a long time.&nbsp; I&#039;d start with this site and go from there:</p><p><a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=parthian%20coins" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=parthian%20coins" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=parthian coins</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Or, you could just post an unknown coin here on CoinTalk and let us hash out the ID.&nbsp; But it&#039;s more fun to be able to do it yourself.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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