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Obol - Unknown King I
| Issuer | Persis, Kingdom of |
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| Year | 200 BC - 170 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Bearded male head in right profile, identified as an unattributed Persis ruler, wearing a diadem and a kyrbasia (the distinctive pointed Iranian headdress) surmounted by an eagle and a crescent. A rosette appears in the left field before the face. The portrait displays the characteristic Achaemenid-derived artistic style of the Persis dynasts, rendered in fine relief on an irregularly shaped flan. |
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| Reverse description | A fire temple depicted at centre, the sacred flame rendered in schematic form, with the supreme deity Ahura-Mazda represented as a winged figure hovering above the altar. To the left, the king stands in right-facing profile in an attitude of worship or presentation. To the right, a standard surmounted by an eagle rises from the ground line. The composition reflects the Zoroastrian religious iconography characteristic of the Frataraka and early Persis dynastic coinage. |
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| Additional information |
The frataraka rulers of Persis operated as a semi-autonomous dynasty under Seleucid suzeranty, issuing their own coinage in a region that had formed the heartland of the Achaemenid empire. The "Unknown King I" designation reflects an ongoing scholarly dispute: the sequence and identity of the frataraka cannot be firmly established from surviving textual sources, leaving numismatic evidence as the primary tool for reconstructing the dynastic order entirely.
Sunrise 580 places this obol within a tight chronological window that corresponds to the gradual weakening of Seleucid control in the eastern satrapies following Antiochus III's death in 187 BC.