196, Lot: 74. Estimate $150. Sold for $185. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Gotarzes I. 91-87 BC. AR Drachm (21mm, 4.07 g, 1h). Ekbatana mint. Diademed bust left, wearing tiara / Archer (Arsakes I) seated right on throne, holding bow. Assar, Revised, fig. 6; Sellwood 29.1 (Mithradates II); Shore 102 (Mithradates II). Good VF, toned, slight weak strike on high points.

Gotarzes I, the eldest son and Satrap of Satraps of Mithradates II, was immediately proclaimed king upon his father's death at the hands of Sinatrukes. He apparently spent the bulk of his reign struggling against the rebel, and successfully expelled him from Ekbatana and Rhagai. Assar has attributed to him the S32 tetradrachm, as his inaugural issue from Seleukeia, and S29 drachms. However, some scarce coins, struck from far less skillful dies than those cut at Ekbatana and Rhagae, appear to imply that perhaps shortly before his death, Gotarzes succeeded in extending his power to the northeastern Parthian frontiers, probably as far as Margiane, where he had his crude drachms minted.