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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 6452061, member: 81887&quot;]This post is a little longer (and more speculative) than usual, but I hope you enjoy it and I welcome any feedback on my (possibly hare-brained) speculations.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1257038[/ATTACH] </p><p>Coin 1. Parthian Kingdom, Nisa (?) mint.&nbsp; AE drachm (3.50 g, 16 mm).&nbsp; Pakoros I (78-120 AD).&nbsp; Obverse: Diademed and bearded bust of king left, possible object(s) before, dotted border.&nbsp; Reverse: Seated archer right, blundered legend around, N below bow.&nbsp; Cf. Sellwood 78 type, unlisted variety.&nbsp; This coin: Pars Coins Auction 8 (August 31, 2020), lot 60.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1257037[/ATTACH] </p><p>Coin 2. Parthian Kingdom, Ekbatana (?) mint.&nbsp; AE drachm (3.10 g, 16 mm).&nbsp; Pakoros I (78-120 AD).&nbsp; Obverse: Diademed and bearded bust of king left, dotted border.&nbsp; Reverse: Seated archer right, uncertain blundered legend around, Ekbatana mintmark below bow.&nbsp; Cf. Sellwood 78 type, unlisted variety.&nbsp; This coin: Pars Coins Auction 8 (August 31, 2020), lot 62.</p><p><br /></p><p>The two coins above are both apparently of Sellwood Type 78, which has traditionally been attributed to Vologases III (105-147 AD) but which is reassigned by Assar to Pakoros I (78-120 AD).&nbsp; However, for my purposes in this article, the exact name of the king who issued these coins doesn’t matter; they are from the end of the first or start of the 2ndcentury AD, and that is close enough.&nbsp; Silver drachms of Type 78 are among the most common Parthian coins on the market, but bronze drachms of this type- indeed, bronze Parthian drachms in general- are much less common.&nbsp; The question that bothers me- and which I can’t definitively answer yet- is, why were these bronze drachms issued at the same time that good-quality silver drachms were still being struck in large quantities?&nbsp; There are four general answers that I can imagine: 1) A general or localized shortage of silver, leading to a temporary “emergency” issuance of bronze drachms.&nbsp; 2) Maintenance of a separate “closed” economy in a region of a broader empire (similar to Egypt in the Roman Imperial period prior to Diocletian).&nbsp; 3) Cores of fourree coins, either official or unofficial.&nbsp; 4) Imitative coins from groups outside the border of Parthia proper, who copied the designs.&nbsp; To discuss these possibilities, I will need to go back in time to the end of the first century BC and discuss the broader question of Parthian drachm issues.&nbsp; At this point, I will introduce a map of Parthia showing major mint cities, and a figure showing six further coins from my collection that will be useful in this discussion.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1257039[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1257040[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Let’s start during the reign of Orodes II (57-38 BC).&nbsp; During this reign, we see at least a dozen different mints issuing silver drachms.&nbsp; While the silver quality of these coins seems to be variable, with Caley reporting values between 42 and 75% purity, coins of Orodes II tend to maintain a good, silvery appearance (see Coin 3).&nbsp; Drachms of Phraates IV (38-2 BC) were also issued from nearly a dozen mints, and most continue to be of superficially good silver, even from “border” mints such as Margiane (see Coin 4), although the Mithradatkart coinage is often crude and may be of lower purity.&nbsp; Interestingly, it is during the reign of Phraates IV that we see the first AE drachm from Margiane listed by Sellwood (52.39), even though there were also good-quality silver drachms from this mint and reign.&nbsp;&nbsp; Phraatakes (2 BC- 4 AD) starts the great pruning of mints, issuing drachms only from five total mints.&nbsp; Most of his solo drachm coinage consists of debased pieces from Mithradatkart (see Coin 5); an AE drachm of Margiane (S. 57.14) also exists.&nbsp; His drachm coinage with his mother/wife Musa is of good silver quality from Ekbatana and Rhagae, but debased at Susa (see Coin 6).&nbsp; Many of the smaller mints stop issuing drachms (or any other coins) at this point.&nbsp; The reign of Artabanos IV (10- 38 AD) seems to be the crucial point.&nbsp; Artabanos issued good silver drachms only from Ekbatana (by far the most common) and Rhagae, with debased silver issues from Rhagae, Nisa, and Susa and an AE issue (Sellwood 62.12) from Margiane. </p><p><br /></p><p>At this point, I need to quote from Fred Shore’s book.&nbsp; In his discussion of Artabanos IV’s coinage, he says, “In accordance with the anti-Greek feeling and resulting garbling of the legends, we see a much higher proportion of drachms bearing the Ekbatana mint monogram which like the legends is merely copied from year to year and begins to lose meaning as a mintmark.&nbsp; For the remainder of the dynasty, it becomes clear that a variety of mints produced drachms with the (former) Ekbatana mint monogram.”&nbsp; This is a key point that I think is often overlooked: The “Ekbatana” mintmark on many later coins may just be a blindly-copied design element rather than a meaningful indicator of mint origin.&nbsp; At any rate, mintmarks other than Ekbatana soon fall out of use.&nbsp; Vardanes I issued good silver drachms with the Ekbatana mintmark, and debased coins with Mithradatkart, Nisa, and Susa mintmarks and an AE drachm from Margiane (64.37).&nbsp; My Coin 7 may be part of the Susa issue, or from Margiane (the differences between Sellwood’s 64.36 (Susa) and 64.37 (Margiane) are not very clear on my specimen).&nbsp; The last Mithradatkart mintmarked drachm listed in Sellwood is from Gotarzes II (40-51 AD), and all later drachms he lists are either Ekbatana-mintmarked good silver, or Margiane-mintmarked AE. </p><p><br /></p><p>There are two developments to consider in the second half of the first century AD.&nbsp; First, the Susa mint, which had been issuing billon or AE Parthian drachms, switched over to issuing bronze drachms and tetradrachms for the rulers of Elymais during this period.&nbsp; The exact timing is unclear, but dates of 45 AD and 71 AD have been proposed.&nbsp; Second, the extensive bronze drachm coinage in the name of Sanabares began in the eastern regions.&nbsp; Sanabares was an Indo-Parthian king who reigned in the mid-first century AD, and coins in his name seem to have been struck for many decades after his death, many of them bearing the Margiane mintmark (see Coin 8).&nbsp; It is thus tempting to assign other Parthian-style AE drachms to Sanabares et al., or other minor rulers on Parthia’s eastern frontier, but I think we should be cautious in doing so.&nbsp; Parthian AE drachms are a complex phenomenon, and they probably weren’t all issued at one place or one time.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, with all that background, what can we say about the two coins that started this essay?&nbsp; Both coins, based on their obverses, appear to have the portrait style of Sellwood type 78, and thus date from the late 1st century or early 2nd century AD.&nbsp; (Coin 1 does also somewhat resemble the portrait of Vardanes I on Coin 7, but on closer inspection I think it is pretty definitely not Vardanes I.)&nbsp; Coin 1 has some double-strike issues on the reverse, and I can’t make out whether the inscriptions along the sides are normal for Type 78, but the mintmark under the archer is unmistakably that of Ekbatana.&nbsp; Coin 2 also has an obverse similar to Type 78; the reverse has normal inscription for Type 78 as far as I can tell, and there is a clear N mintmark which has been used for Nisa.&nbsp; There are some differences in the portraits- Coin 1 has distinct waves in the hair, and the eyebrow consists of distinct dots, while Coin 2 has completely straight hair.&nbsp; So, let’s consider the four possibilities I raised at the beginning.</p><p><br /></p><p>1)&nbsp; &nbsp; Local silver famine (during the reign of Pakoros I): I think this is highly unlikely.&nbsp; There were plenty of good silver drachms being struck by Pakoros at this time, and while Shore reports that Sellwood Types 78.10 and 78.11 are often of low-quality silver, the only clearly AE drachm for Type 78 that I can find is Sellwood 78.12, which bears the Margiane mintmark and would fit in with the long tradition of AE drachms from Margiane.&nbsp; While there were some local silver shortages during the 1st century, notably at Mithradatkart and Susa, these two coins don’t seem to be part of that story.</p><p><br /></p><p>2)&nbsp; &nbsp; Separate “closed” economy: Also unlikely.&nbsp; Although Elymais had its own local coinage, and took over minting duties at Susa during the 1st century, there is no reason to assign these coins to Elymais, and I see no reason to assume some other “closed” economy for which these would have been issued.</p><p><br /></p><p>3)&nbsp; &nbsp; Fourree cores: Unlikely.&nbsp; While Parthian fourrees are a very under-studied subject, they seem to be fairly rare and scattered throughout the Parthian coinage.&nbsp; There is no trace of silver in these two coins, and they were sold at auction along with several other similar coins; it would be unusual to find several fully-exposed fourree cores, all of the same issue, in one hoard.</p><p><br /></p><p>4)&nbsp; &nbsp; Imitative issue from outside Parthia: This seems most likely to me.&nbsp; I think the key here is to accept Shore’s contention that in the later 1st century, the “Ekbatana” mintmark was no longer a guarantee that the coin was struck in Ekbatana.&nbsp; Indeed, looking at the map, Ekbatana is thoroughly in the heartland of Parthian-controlled territory and would not have been issuing crude bronze drachms at the same time as good silver coins.&nbsp; The “Nisa” status of the N on Coin 1 is also highly dubious.&nbsp; As far as I am aware, Nisa remained in Parthian control during the time of Pakoros.&nbsp; Also, the last undoubted use of a Nisa mintmark on a Parthian coin was by Vardanes I (40-45) on a debased silver drachm (Sellwood 64.32). The use of “N” on this coin is either imitative of an older coin, or coincidence.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, there you have my conclusion: These two coins (Coin 1 and Coin 2) were probably not struck by Pakoros I (or Vologases III), and most likely not at the Ekbatana or Nisa mints.&nbsp; So, who struck them, and where?&nbsp; Alas, sometimes the more we know, the less we know.&nbsp; I now am less certain of the origin of these coins than I was when I started researching.&nbsp; Guess I have more research to do, so that I can end up knowing nothing at all…</p><p><br /></p><p>If anyone is still reading, please post your comments, additional information, corrections, or vehement arguments.&nbsp; Plus whatever coins might be relevant, or just random silliness.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Sources consulted:</p><p><br /></p><p>Assar, G.R.F.&nbsp; “Iran under the Arsakids, 247 BC- AD 224/227.” In Nelson, Bradley R. (Ed.), Numismatic Art of Persia: The Sunrise Collection Part I: Ancient- 650 BC to AD 650. Lancaster: Classical Numismatic Group Inc., 2011.&nbsp; ISBN 978-0-9837652-8-8.</p><p><br /></p><p>Caley, Earle R. Chemical Composition of Parthian Coins. Numismatic Notes and Monographs Number 129.&nbsp; New York: American Numismatic Society, 1955.</p><p><br /></p><p>Koch, Heidemarie.&nbsp; A Hoard of Coins from Eastern Parthia.&nbsp; Numismatic Notes and Monographs Number 165.&nbsp; New York: American Numismatic Society, 1990.&nbsp; ISBN 0-89722-239-3.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sellwood, David.&nbsp; An Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia (2nd edition).&nbsp; London: Spink and Sons Ltd., 1980. </p><p><br /></p><p>Shore, Fred B.&nbsp; Parthian Coins and History: Ten Dragons Against Rome.&nbsp; Quarryville: Classical Numismatic Group Inc., 1993.&nbsp; ISBN 0-9636738-0-7.</p><p><br /></p><p>Van’t Haaff, P.A.&nbsp; Catalogue of Elymaean Coinage Ca. 147 B.C.- A.D. 228.&nbsp; Lancaster: Classical Numismatic Group Inc., 2007.&nbsp; ISBN 978-0-9709268-8-3.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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