Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Drachm - Arsaces I Mithradatkart
| Issuer | Parthian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 247 BC - 211 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Silver |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Bust of Arsaces I facing left, wearing a distinctive soft Parthian bashlyk (satrapal cap) with long side flaps falling onto the shoulders and a third flap extending behind the neck. The portrait is rendered in a Hellenistic artistic style, depicting the king with a prominent nose, defined eye, and carefully articulated facial features. The field is plain, with no surrounding legend on the obverse. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | ΑΡΣΑΚ[ΟΥ] ΜΤ |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Arsaces I founded the Parthian kingdom around 247 BC after leading the Parni tribe in revolt against the Seleucid satrap Andragoras, and these early drachms were struck at Mithradatkart — a mint city whose precise location remains disputed among scholars, variously placed in Astarabad or the Nisa region of modern Turkmenistan. The Sellwood 3 type sits at the very origin of Parthian coinage, making attributions genuinely difficult; die links between Sellwood 1 through 4 suggest a small, centralized operation producing relatively few coins for a newly established polity still consolidating territory.
Surviving examples are rare by any measure.