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 - Mithridates II
| Issuer | Parthian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 95 BC - 93 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 | Draped bust of Mithridates II facing left, wearing a stepped tiara adorned with pellets; a neck torque is visible, its terminals ending in two pellets. The portrait is rendered in a refined Hellenistic style characteristic of the mature Parthian coinage of this reign. The field is plain, with no visible 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 | Greek |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Mithridates II ruled the Parthian Empire at its territorial apex, having pushed west into Mesopotamia and east toward the borders of the expanding Kushan sphere. It was during his reign — around 96 BC — that the first known diplomatic contact between Parthia and Rome occurred, when the Roman general Sulla met a Parthian ambassador on the Euphrates, a meeting the Roman sources later inflated into a grand encounter of equals.
Sellwood 28.2 belongs to a late group within his coinage, distinguished by a specific die treatment of the diadem and neck truncation that separates it from the earlier Sellwood 27 issues.