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Tetradrachm - Bagadates I
| Issuer | Kingdom of Persis |
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| Year | 164 BC - 146 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Bearded bust of Bagadates I facing right, wearing a kyrbasia (pointed satrapal headdress) adorned with a diadem, and a pendant hoop earring visible at the ear. The portraiture is rendered in a Hellenistic-influenced style with fine relief, capturing the mature, bearded effigy of the ruler. The field behind the head is plain within a beaded border following the irregular flan edge. |
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| Reverse script | Aramaic |
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| Additional information |
Bagadates I is the earliest known ruler of Persis to strike his own coinage, making this tetradrachm one of the foundational issues of a dynasty that persisted for nearly three centuries under Seleucid and later Parthian suzerainty. The kingdom of Persis occupied the Iranian heartland — the old Achaemenid core — and its rulers styled themselves as heirs to that tradition even while nominally subordinate to Hellenistic overlords. That tension between local Persian identity and imposed Greek political structures runs through the entire series.
The Alram 511 reference places this firmly in the earliest typological group. Surviving specimens are few.