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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
90, Lot: 32. Estimate $125.
Sold for $106. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PARTHIA. Gotarzes I. Circa 91-87 BC. AR Drachm (19mm, 4.16 gm). Rhagae mint. Diademed bust left, wearing tiara; neck torque ends in sea-horse / Arsakes I seated right on throne, holding bow. Sellwood 29.3; Shore 104 corr.; BMC Parthia pg. 36, 120 (all attributed to Mithradates II). VF, lightly toned. Rare.

From the Bellaria Collection. Ex Peus 337 (3-9 November 1993), lot 192.

Gotarzes I, the eldest son and Satrap of Satraps of Mithradates II, was immediately procaimed king upon his father's death at the hands of Sinatrukes. He apparently spent the bulk of his reign struggling against the rebel, and successfully expelled him from Ekbatana and Rhagae. Dr. Assar has attributed to him the S32 tetradrachm, as his inaugural issue from Seleucia, and S29 drachms. However, some scarce coins, struck from far less skilful dies than those cut at Ecbatana and Rhagae, appear to imply that perhaps shortly before his death, Gotarzes succeeded in extending his power to the north-eastern Parthian frontiers, probably as far as Margiane, where he had his crude drachms minted.