Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 437. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Phraates III. 70/69 - 58/7 BC. AR Drachm (4.12 gm). Rhagae mint. Diademed facing bust / BASILEWS MEGALOU AR-SAKOU KAI FILELLHN[OS] EPIFANOUS QEOPATOROS EUERGET[OU], Arsakes I seated right on throne, holding bow; monogram below bow. Sellwood 35.7 (Darius?); Shore 165 var. (legend); BMC Parthia pg. 56, 6 (Unknown king); MACW -. EF. Rare. [See color enlargement on plate 7] ($1000)

Ex Sotheby's (3 May 1984), lot 239.

It is possible that Phraates minted S35 drachms with his facing bust, generally regarded as the issue of an “Unknown King”, Sinatrukes, Darius, or Mithradates III, at this juncture in response to the “campaign” coins of Artabanos III (see lot 434), circa 63/2-62/1 BC. Perhaps one reason for the appearance of a frontal portrait was to separate S35 from S30 when Phraates introduced into his titulature the epithet QEOPATWR.