Ever since I temporarily stopped collecting US coins and started collecting ancients my focus has been on Romans and in particular the denarii of early (1st-3rd century) Emperors from Augustus to Septimius Severus.. But after picking up my first Parthian Kingdom drachm of Mithridates II I have been considering collecting more of them just because I like the way they look and the designs. However I’m not sure if there are any Parthian Kingdom drachms that have sky high prices. Does anyone know? Id like to collect a series that I can finish and that is reasonably affordable and I know that will never happen with my Romans due to the extremely high prices of denarii of Emperors like Caligula. I’m not going to give up on Emperor denarii but I just know I’ll never have them all. So yeah if anyone knows if there are any Parthian Kingdom drachms that are stupid expensive like Caligula denarii are please let me know .
My first Parthian collection had about 400 coins, all different, and it was nowhere near complete. But if by "a series that I can finish" you just mean one portrait drachm for each ruler: First, there's the eternal problem that attributions of Parthian coins to specific rulers are often debated, and the accepted ID can change. The attributions by G.R.F. Assar given in his various articles (and conveniently assembled in his essay in the Sunrise collection book) are the most recent and are gaining acceptance among collectors and dealers, but that's not to say that someone won't come along and revise them in a few years. If that uncertainty bothers you, turn back now, Parthian coins are not for you. But if you can deal with lack of certainty, here's some general observations: If you want well-struck drachms in lightly circulated (say VF+ or so) grade, the majority of rulers can be found for under $250. (Prices for Parthian coins, along with all others, have been creeping up lately, so these may be out of date, but the overall pattern holds.) Many of the exceptions are in the early part of the series- Arsakes I (the first Parthian king) is going to cost a few thousand bucks, Arsakes II at least 500+ for a nice specimen. Drachms of Phraatakes alone are reasonable, but with his co-ruler and wife/mother Musa the cost goes up to maybe 800-1000 for a VF specimen. There's the Sellwood Type 49.1 drachm of Pacoros, son of Orodes II, which is extremely rare and you will probably not be able to buy for any price. A few rulers like Orodes III may not have struck drachms but did strike other denominations. Osroes I (with his poodle-like hair) is expensive, as is the last Parthian king, Artabanos VI (called Artabanos IV in older references - see what I mean about shifting attributions?). Of course there are very general observations, and I'm surely forgetting some other rare rulers. Some of the kings issued multiple portrait types, with some common but others rare for the same king; would you settle for just a common type to represent that king, or would you seek out the rarer portrait types as well? I don't intend to discourage you from this project, I just want you to carefully plan out in advance so you can proceed intelligently.
Thanks for all the information . I was just planning on trying to get 1 drachm for each ruler. So if one ruler issued multiple types and some are very rare while others are common I would go with the common one. I usually like to get XF or better when possible but if some rulers cost a fortune even in F grade then I would accept that and just get a lower grade. Kind of like with my Roman Emperors. I would not be happy with a VF grade Trajan because they are pretty affordable all the way up to AU but Caligula or Claudius? Yeah I’d be just fine with an F grade one. I’m not sure if Parthia issued other denominations also like didrachms or tetradrachms but if so I don’t plan on getting those. Just the 1 drachm silver coins. I like that they aren’t heavily debased like the Romans ended up doing because I’ve never been a big fan of copper coins due to how dark they are and how hard the details are to see when they start changing funky colors.
@Parthicus gave you a terrific answer. A lot like Romans, most affordable with a few scarcities. The silver was never debased because Persian main revenue was taxing the Silk Road trade. If they debased their silver coins, they would just get debased coins in return, and Persian coins would not be accepted in China. Therefore, they never debased. If they needed to increase revenue, instead of debasing they increased Silk Road taxes. Btw, many of the earliest Sassanid coins were Parthian coins overstruck. They took the good silver Parthian coins and hammered them flat, (making them thin but wider), then overstruck them. The wide, thin coin done in order for Ardashir to quickly make coins became the standard for Islamic silver for over 1000 years.
I stayed away from them for a long time till I got one as a gift from our annual x-mas exchange, and like I knew what would happen if I did get one, it led to an eventual slow build of buying new Parthians for rulers I don't have. I have even bought more than 1 for some, drachms & then Tetradrachms of the same ruler. They are fun and a nice break from Romans. Below is what I have gotten so far. jJust 1 hasn't been added yet. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7149
