Tetradrachm - Artabanus III

Artabanus III ruled during a period of sustained internal fracture within the Arsacid dynasty, contending with rival claimants and the persistent encroachment of Roman client states along the western frontier. His tetradrachms were struck at Seleucia on the Tigris, the empire's premier mint for silver coinage — a city that remained culturally Greek centuries after the Seleucids lost it, a tension the Arsacids never fully resolved.

Sellwood 63 places this issue late in his reign. The billon composition reflects a debasement trend that had been accelerating across Parthian tetradrachm production since the mid-first century AD.