Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 819. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDO-PARTHIAN. Aria or Margiana. Tanlis Mardates. Circa mid-late 1st century BC. Countermark on a Parthian AR Drachm (3.85 gm) of Mithradates III. Diademed bust left, wearing tiara; countermark: head left, legend TANLHC / Arsakes I seated right on throne, holding bow. Senior 195.3D; Sellwood 91.2 corr.; Shore -; Alram 1186 corr. (Otannes); MIG 609 corr. (Otannes); MACW 762 corr. (Otannes). Host coin VF; countermark Good VF. ($150)

From the Bellaria Collection. Ex Dr. Mesrop Abgarians Collection (Malter 51, 2 June 1993), lot 242.

See Triton VII, lot 430, for the reattribution of the host coin from Orodes I to Mithradates III. Previous authors have interpreted the name on this countermark as Otannes, but this clear specimen suggests the true reading, confirmed by Senior, as Tanles. What was seen as an O at the beginning of the legend on earlier specimens is probably the end of the loose leather cap worn by the person depicted. Senior believes that this Tanles and Tanlis Mardates (Alram 1269) are the same person, and that these countermarked Parthian issues preceded the countermarked issues in his own name and portrait (see Senior, pg. 106). As further evidence, a similar issue is known with the countermark legend reading TANLHCM (Triton III, lot 677), which would certainly rule out a reading of Otannes.