165, Lot: 75. Estimate $200. Sold for $165. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PERSIS. Autophradates (Vadfradad) II. Early-mid 2nd century BC. AR Drachm (18mm, 4.14 g). Head right wearing satrapal cap with eagle crest / Fire altar with bust of Ahura-Mazda, flanked by king and standard surmounted by eagle. Alram 547; BMC Arabia p. 205, 5. Good VF, slightly granular surfaces.

Persis was founded by Bagadat (Bayadad), a scion of a noble Persian family, in the early 3rd century BC and occupied the heartland of the ancient Persian empire centered on Persepolis. This region was the locus of the worship of the Persian god Mazda, and gave the dynasty legitimacy as the true successors of the Achaemenids. The fire altar of Mazda was featured prominently on the coins of the Persid kings, who probably regarded the Parthians as barbarian upstarts. A descendant of the Persid kings, Ardashir, would eventually supplant the Parthians and establish a new, truly Persian empire, that of the Sasanians (see lot 108).