Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 532. Estimate $100.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Mithradates I. 165-132 BC. AR Obol (0.57 g, 3h). Ekbatana mint. Diademed bust right, wearing long beard, within pelleted border / B[AΣIΛEΩΣ MEΓ]AΛ[O]Y ΛPΣAKOY, head right, wearing bashlyk and long beard. Assar, Genealogy I, -; Sellwood 12.4; Shore 30; PDC 39508 (this coin). Fine, toned.

From the Todd A. Ballen Collection. Ex Dr. Robert Gonnella Collection (Peus 388, 1 November 2006), lot 300; Peus 328 (2 May 1990), lot 292.

It is believed that the S12 coinage was minted by Mithradates in commemoration of his conquest of the strategically important provinces of Media and Atropatene about 147/6 BC, and the appointment of his brother, Bagasis, to the governorship of these territories.