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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bob L., post: 3692552, member: 56976&quot;]A few tidbits about Parthian mints…</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Over the course of Parthia’s history there were more than a dozen mints, including traveling court mints, which produced coins. Coins produced at the eastern mints like Mithradatkart often exhibit an especially crude but interesting style – they can get pretty weird looking.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Parthian tetradrachms were minted almost exclusively at Seleucia.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. On some rare early first century BC drachms from Parthia’s eastern territories, mint names were written out as an extra line on the right reverse (e.g. Aria, Nisa, Margianae, Rhagae, and “Katactpateia” – indicating traveling mints).</p><p><br /></p><p>4. Mint monograms began appearing below Arsakes’ bow on the reverse of drachms starting around 80 BC. The best online source for identifying Parthian mint monograms is Alwin’s page here: <a href="http://parthika.fr/Ateliers.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://parthika.fr/Ateliers.html" rel="nofollow">http://parthika.fr/Ateliers.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>5. By the middle of the first century AD, Ekbatana’s symbol began appearing on almost all Parthian drachms. Thus by that time it had lost its significance as an actual indicator of mint location. A similar thing happened in Elymais, an occasionally rebellious, occasionally independent subkingdom within Parthian territory. On some early Elymaean coins a horse head symbol indicated minting at Susa, and an anchor symbol indicated Seleucia on the Hedyphon (not to be confused with Seleucia on the Tigris, where Parthian tets were minted). Just as Ekbatana’s mint symbol eventually became standardized on Parthian coins, the Elymaean anchor (derived from the Seleucid anchor) became ubiquitous on later coins from Elymais, no matter which Elymaean mint (there were likely only two or three) they were produced at.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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