107, Lot: 120. Estimate $750. Sold for $470. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PERSIS. Artaxsir (Artaxerxes) I. Early 3rd century BC. AR Drachm (17mm, 4.15 gm, 4h). Susa mint. Diademed head right, wearing kyrbasia with chin flap / 'Artaxerxes, fire-kindler of the gods' in Aramaic, Artaxerxes standing right, in attitude of prayer, to left of a fire temple; standard to right. Alram 523; BMC Arabia 1; De Morgan pl. 27, 15. EF, toned, minor porosity on obverse. Well-struck with non-blundered legend.

B. Kritt's analysis of the Frataraka Hoard in his book, The Early Seleucid Mint of Susa, was instrumental in reattributing this series. First, he was able to definitively place the series at the mint of Susa, rather than the traditional Persepolis. Second, he was able to place this series of six rulers (Persid period I kings) within a finite time period of circa 295 - circa 220 BC. Clearly, the evidence of the coins themselves (the obverse diademed portrait and the reverse inscription) pointed to these issues as kings ruling by divine right, not as suzerains of the Seleukids. Combining this and other hoard evidence with his analysis of the Susa mint in general, an independent reign of the Persid kings (period I) was certain. His beginning date of 295 is set by the destruction of Pasargadae, after which Seleukid coinage in Susa ended, until circa 220, when Polybius notes that Alexander, brother of the Seleukid usurper Molon, is satrap of Persis.