Tetradrachm - Artabanus Seleucia on the Tigris

Artabanus I seized the Parthian throne amid the dynastic chaos that followed Mithridates I's death, his reign lasting only a year or two before he was killed fighting the Saka invaders pressing in from the east. These Seleucia-on-the-Tigris issues are among the last tetradrachms struck before prolonged Saka pressure effectively ended large-denomination silver production at that mint for a generation. Sellwood 18.1 is the first variety in the Artabanus sequence, distinguished by specific diadem tie and reverse die details that separate it from the rarer subtypes.