Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 404. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Mithradates I. Circa 171-132 BC. AR Tetradrachm (13.82 gm). Seleukeia on the Tigris mint. Dated Seleukid era 173 (140/39 BC). Bearded bust right wearing diadem, reel and pellet border / BASILEWS M-EGALOU ARSA-KOU FILELL-HNOS, Herakles standing left, holding cup, lion's skin, and club; monogram to outer left, GOR (date) in exergue. Sellwood 13.4; Shore 16 var. (monogram); BMC Parthia pg. 14, 56 note; cf. MACW 481; Le Rider, Suse pl. LXX, 19 var. (same). Good VF, minor porosity. ($1500)

A few years after Mithradates conquered Media and Atropatene, he attacked the Seleukid power base in Mesopotamia. He minted the S13 tetradrachms and drachms in celebration of his victory after the Seleucid royal mint fell to the Parthians in early July 141 BC This issue was finally terminated in 138 BC when the Seleukid king Demetrios II attempted to recover his losses by invading Mesopotamia. The Syrian king was defeated and captured by the Parthian forces in July or August of that same year.