Ok my last Parthian

Parthian Kingdom..
Vardanes l ..40-45..AD.
AR Drachm..
Ob. Diad. and cuirr. bust left..
Rev. Archer enthroned right,
holding bow..
19mm x 3.66 g.

 

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Dang thats nice...also...

I have to go lay down now...

 

What a beautiful, crisp coin!

 

Great detail!

 

John, these are some lovely coins even if I haven't gotten into Parthian's. Congrats.

 

Very sharp lookin' coin!!

Eng => you're the Parthian King!!

 

Thanks guy's, i bought these cause they were cheap, now i have a few, back to Romans..

 

For some reason the face on the coin, reminds me of the "Spy vs Spy" Mad magizine cartoon guys.

 

How do you tell Vardanes I from Vologases III?

 

Uh-oh, Eng ... Doug has given you a homework assignment!! (he's a tough marker!!)

 

Since I don't collect these, I would say one wears white while the other wears black. Does that help? (lol)

 

crisp...that's a good word for that coin....nice and crisp indeed. sharp features and a sweet color.

 

...very nice jw..well i spent a hour looking these over, i thought it was the neck rings they have, the only difference i could see, mine doesn't have any.So i have no idea...

 

Here mine, of Vologases III, I think

 

Eng,

Not Vardanes.

Yours is a particularly nice example of a common type: Vologases III, AR drachm, c. 105 - 147 AD, mint: Ecbatana, Sellwood type 78.3.


The devices and style of most Vardanes I drachms are indeed similar to the drachms of Volo III. However, you will never see this long of a pointed beard on the obverse portrait of a Vardanes.


Bob

 

Welcome Bob L. You sound like you may know a little about these. I'm sure John (Eng), will appreciate the information.

 

I don't own a Vardanes drachm and can't say the ones in books are dead ringers for the portraits on my tetradrachm and AE13. A problem with Parthians is so few of them made life easy on collectors by writing their names on the coins and there has been changes and disagreements on some ID's over the years.

 

Thanks for the welcome. Yes, I got seduced by Parthians about twenty years ago and haven't looked back. In fact I was just poking around the Web earlier today, looking - as I often do - for recently uploaded posts dealing with Parthia, that led me to this thread. Decided to sign up.

I've got three folders of Parthian coins at Forum, if anyone is interested:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=3627
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=3628
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=3629

Doug, I share your frustration with attributing Parthians (as I share your frustrations with Elymaeans, as per our correspondence recently on Forum). But it's still such a worthy, rewarding collecting area, isn't it? Looks like you've got a Sellwood 64.16 (the tet) and 64.41 (the chalkous) above.

Bob

 

Welcome Bob L ... man, it's always nice to have some knowledgeable folks on this site to help balance-out my absolute lack of common sense!!



... thanks for the great coin-links!!

 

And he's not kidding!!