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 - Vologases III Є
| Issuer | Parthian Empire (Parthian Empire (247 BC - 224 AD)) |
|---|---|
| Year | 121 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Billon |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Diademed and draped bust of Vologases III facing left, wearing a tiara with elaborate decorative elements characteristic of Parthian royal portraiture. The effigy is rendered in the distinctive stylized manner of late Parthian coinage, with the king's features presented in a frontal-influenced left-facing profile. The Greek letter Є (epsilon) appears in the field behind the royal portrait, serving as a control mark or regnal indicator. The flan is irregular, typical of hammered billon tetradrachms of the Parthian series. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | [ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ] / ΒΑΣΙΛΕ[ΩΝ - ΑΡΣΑΚΟY] / OΛAΓAΣO[Y] - ΔΙΚΑΙΟY / ΠΕΡΙΤΕΙΟΥ - ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟY[Σ / ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ] - ΓΛY (Translation: The King of the Kings Arsakos Olagasos of Justice of the Illustrious Philhellene Periteios (January).) |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Vologases III ruled during a period of sustained Roman pressure on Parthia's western frontiers, with Trajan's campaigns having recently pushed deep into Mesopotamia before his death in 117 AD forced a Roman withdrawal. The tetradrachms of his reign were struck at Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, the old Seleucid capital that Parthian monarchs never fully displaced as a commercial hub, and the billon composition reflects decades of gradual debasement from the purer silver issues of earlier kings.
The Є control mark places this among a specific emission sequence identified by Sellwood. Shore 408 confirms the attribution without significant variation.