Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1566. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PARTHIA, Kings of. Bagasis. Circa 127-126 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.26 gm). Seleukeia mint. Diademed bust right / BASILEWS right, ARSAKOU left, Demeter enthroned left, holding Nike in right hand, cornucopiae in left, nereid supporting throne. Shore -; Sellwood 18.1; Le Rider, Suse pl. lxxi, 1-2. Good VF, scattered light porosity, sharp portrait. ($1500)

Dr. Assar has convincingly argued -- based on literary evidence, a number of references on cuneiform tablets, and the hitherto unknown dated type of this series (see lot 1575) ­ that this coinage is not an interregnal issue but rather the brief coinage of the elderly King Bagasis, who apparently ruled for only a few months before being succeeded by his younger brother, Artabanus I.