Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 663. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Orodes II. Circa 57-38 BC. AR Drachm (3.97 g, 12h). Ekbatana mint. Diademed and draped bust left, wearing torque ending in sea-horse or griffin, wart on forehead; eight-rayed star to left, crescent above eight-rayed star to right; all within pelleted border / BΛΣIΛEΩΣ/BΛΣIΛEΩN ΛP ΣΛ[KOV] [EV]EPΓET[OV]/ΔIKΛIOV EΠIΦΛNOVΣ/[Φ]IΛEΛΛH[NOΣ] (sic), archer (Arsakes I) seated right on throne, holding bow; monogram below bow, anchor symbol behind throne. Sellwood 48.9; Shore 261; PDC 17393 (same obv. die). EF, toned, obverse slightly softly struck.

From the Todd A. Ballen Collection.

The Parthian kings were called brothers of the sun and moon, hence the star and crescent on their coins. The royal wart was the sign of true membership in the Arsakid family and was used at least as early as the time of Orodes II to establish legitimacy to the king’s claim to the throne. In modern terminology it is called a tricoepithelioma, a hereditary lesion on the forehead, known to be passed on for as long as one hundred years. In the Arsakid family, according to tradition, it lasted throughout the dynasty, almost five hundred years. It is probable, however, that the later kings’ claim to the royal wart was counterfeit, with the lesion on later tetradrachms replaced by a lock of hair.