Baldwin & Sons
Auction 100 27 September 2016
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ANCIENT COINS, THE DAVID SELLWOOD COLLECTION OF PARTHIAN COINS (PART FOUR), Mithradates I (164-132 BC), Silver Tetradrachm, minted at Seleucia on the Tigris, diademed and bearded bust right, reel-and-pellet border, rev naked Heracles standing left, wine-cup and club in right and left hands respectively, lion's skin over left arm, monogram in field left, four line inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟY ΑΡΣΑΚΟY ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ, year ΓΟΡ = 173 SEM (140/39 BC) in exergue, 16.12g, 12h (S 13.3). About very fine, porous surfaces, a rare dated variety.
ex Dr Busso Peus Nachf, Auction 378, 28 April 2004, lot 306
Supported by the extant classical literary sources, contemporary Babylonian cuneiform documents attest that Parthian forces annexed Mesopotamia in the summer of 141 BC. Soon afterwards and in order to celebrate the occasion, the royal mint at Seleucia on the Tigris reverted to issuing coins for the victorious Arsacid monarch, Mithradates I, who might have visited the newly conquered territories and tarried in Babylon during autumn - winter of that same year. The first Arsacid issue from Seleucia, the S13.1-2 Tetradrachms and S13.6 Drachms, are undated while the subsequent outputs, the S13.3-5 Tetradrachms and S13.8-10 Drachms, carry Seleucid Era dates 173 and 174 SEM, corresponding respectively to 140/39 BC and 139/8 BC. Moreover, the Tetradrachms carry the additional epithet ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ "Philhellene, Lover of Greeks". This was, as Sellwood related, "a somewhat transparent attempt to placate the Greek commercial element in the newly conquered lands". See also the footnote to lot 354.
Estimate: £500-700
ex Dr Busso Peus Nachf, Auction 378, 28 April 2004, lot 306
Supported by the extant classical literary sources, contemporary Babylonian cuneiform documents attest that Parthian forces annexed Mesopotamia in the summer of 141 BC. Soon afterwards and in order to celebrate the occasion, the royal mint at Seleucia on the Tigris reverted to issuing coins for the victorious Arsacid monarch, Mithradates I, who might have visited the newly conquered territories and tarried in Babylon during autumn - winter of that same year. The first Arsacid issue from Seleucia, the S13.1-2 Tetradrachms and S13.6 Drachms, are undated while the subsequent outputs, the S13.3-5 Tetradrachms and S13.8-10 Drachms, carry Seleucid Era dates 173 and 174 SEM, corresponding respectively to 140/39 BC and 139/8 BC. Moreover, the Tetradrachms carry the additional epithet ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ "Philhellene, Lover of Greeks". This was, as Sellwood related, "a somewhat transparent attempt to placate the Greek commercial element in the newly conquered lands". See also the footnote to lot 354.
Estimate: £500-700