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!
Tetradrachm - Darius Seleucia
| Issuer | Media-Atropatene, Kingdom of |
|---|---|
| Year | 80 BC - 70 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | 30 mm |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A beardless archer, identified as the royal Arsacid hero, is depicted seated right upon a throne, clad in a bashlyk headdress and a flowing cloak. He holds a bow in his right hand, with a Greek letter Β (beta) positioned beneath the bow in the lower field, serving as a control mark. Seven lines of Greek inscription occupy the reverse field, recording the full royal titulature. The composition follows the canonical Parthian reverse type derived from Seleucid coinage conventions, with no border. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ ΦΙΛΟΠΑΤΟΡΟΣ ΕΥΕΡΓΕΤΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ Β |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Media Atropatene — the rump kingdom carved from the northwestern corner of the old Median satrapy after Alexander's death — spent much of the first century BC oscillating between Parthian suzerainty and uneasy autonomy. The ruler named Darius attested by this series is known almost exclusively through his coinage; no literary source names him with any confidence, and the chronology of his reign is reconstructed largely from hoard evidence and die studies.
Sellwood 37 places this issue within a sequence that shows progressive stylistic degradation, suggesting a mint working under pressure or with deteriorating supervision rather than a stable royal court at full capacity.