Never say never again: Part 8 (Osroes II, Parthian Claimant to Kingship))

For all of you who bet against me keeping my promise that I was done buying coins for the year (@Bing, etc. ), today is your payday, and those of you naive enough to believe I had the willpower to hold out, pay up!

However, I promise this time for real this is my last coin for the year, with a cherry on top. Sure, I've made this promise like 8 times before, but this time you know it's true because it has a cherry on top. Anyone care to take wagers on this?

Osroes II (Claimant to the Throne of Parthia)
C. 190 CE
Ecbatana Mint (19.49mm, 3.62 g)
Bust left, wearing Parthian tiara
Arsakes I as archer seared right, holding bow in extended hand
Shore 437 ff.

Osroes II of Parthia is as much of a historical unknown as one can possibly get. All that it is known is that Approximately one year before the death of King Vologases IV, Osroes II pressed a claim against him and appears to have been rather successful for a few short months, gaining control of what is today northern Iran. Osroes II even minted coins for a few months from the mint at Ecbatana, but then Vologases IV died and Vologases V came to power and promptly squashed Osroes II like a bug.

So yeah, that's the extent of everything known about Osroes II. He came, he claimed to be King, he minted some coins, and was squashed in under a year. The End!

 

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Nice coin, and I will take that wager

 

Yeah, right! I wish someone would have bet me. I'm still open for a wager.

 

Hey, I'll have you know I have great will power and restraint. I just haven't quite figured out how to apply that restraint to my addiction to ancient coins quite yet. Every time I think I'm perfectly satisfied, I see another coin I need to have.

You have to admit though, it is quite a pretty Parthain. And it will look good next to my other two Parthians.

 

I know next to nothing about Parthian coinage, but I'll take your word that it's a pretty issue. I don't think you'll make it to Thanksgiving without another purchase, but, hey, good luck with that.

 

Parthian coinage was a progression from somewhat realistic yet stylized artwork, to cartoonish looking artwork, to downright crude artwork. Everything started very realistic but as time passed realism became less and less important. My newest Parthian is definitely in the crude category, but I think it is very pretty for what it is.

I now have a coin to represent each phase rather well.


somewhat realistic but with a unique Parthian feel to it


Cartoonish artwork

Crude artwork

I love them all though, despite the different styles. They are all beautiful to me.

 

Congrats on your newest acquisition!!

As far as this being your last purchase of the year and a wager....

I want a piece of the action !!!

 

well...that was quick.

follow these four easy steps to insure you stay on the wagon.

1. have the water line to your fridge spring a leak.
2. don't notice it for several days, this will let some mold get a good running start.
3. fix pipe and buy new flooring in kitchen and family room.
4. money is gone, can't buy coins.



here's a vologases iv of similar style i recently picked up.

 

Sellwood lists three drachm variations for Osroes II. I have two of them. First is S.85.2 which has a small pellet above the left end of the bow. The mintmark A under the bow does not have a pellet under it. If it did, it would be 85.1.



Sellwood 85.3 lacks the pellet and also lacks the crossbar on the A. However I note my coin has a small pellet rather farther over above the archer so I wonder if Sellwood neglected to mention that option. Your coin lacks the crossbar so it would be S.85.3 (Shore 439) but it has the pellet over the left end of the bow which is not a combination Sellwood mentioned. It might be interesting to look at a number of 85.3 coins and see what you see in the way of pellets. None of this means anything with regard to market value and all three types are Ecbatana mint. I have no idea if the mint intended the pellets to have any meaning or not. Shore 439 shows a S.85.3 with pellet above the right side of the bow so I suspect the research I suggest might show something that might need further study. Chasing pellets on coins is something that might get you strange looks in the coin community.


I am required by equal time requirements to mention the existence of bronze coins of Osroes II. Mine is AE13 with the horned sheep reverse but you have to look closely on the top edge of the flan to see the curly horns. Another millimeter and you could be forgiven for thinking the thing was a horse. Parthian AE are much less common than the silver and usually pretty scrappy looking. If they were pretty, I could not afford them.


Re: Betting? You like silver and so did the Parthians. What are the odds on another Parthian before the end of the year? I have two coin shows and several auctions before January so betting I don't buy something would be about the same as predicting my death.

 

You ask what are the odds of another Parthian before the end of the year? Very good actually. I've been eyeing Vologases IV lately, which is how I stumbled into this Osroes II drachm. Funny how that works, you start hunting for a coin and end up getting a different one that bears some relation to the one you want.

 

Well, if you had to fall off the wagon, at least it was with a nice Parthian. I've noticed that coins of Osroes II seem to be a lot more common than one would expect when compared to other short-lived Parthian kings like Vonones II or Parthamaspates. Maybe he was alive and issuing coins for longer than the historians believed, or maybe his supporters got very nervous after his defeat and quickly buried the metallic evidence of their former allegiance, leading to a lot of hoards for future generations of collectors.

This reminded me of when I first was getting interested in Parthian coins around 20 years ago. I was looking through a CNG catalog and admiring some early coins of Mithradates II. Then, later on the same page I saw for the first time a late drachm, probably Osroes II or Vologases IV, and literally had to laugh at how cartoonishly devolved the later coins looked when compared side-by-side to the earlier. That beard- it's just a bunch of straight lines! Of course, now I have learned to appreciate the later artistic style for what it is, but at the time the contrast was quite jarring.

 

I actually like both the more realistic earlier coins and the cruder coins towards the end just as much. Realism is easy to appreciate, but you have to hand it to the Parthian for doing crude with style. Compared to many other crude ancients and medievals, they are still easy to appreciate.

 

Vologases IV in drachm and 4dr versions:


The one I want is Vologases V. He was king during the time of Septimius Severus' civil wars and made the mistake of backing Pescennius Niger. On the good side, he has some knockout facing bust portraits.
https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=153548

 

I like the illustration style of the mid-range period the best.