A few more uglies before we get to my (relatively) new
Parthian acquisitions. Many of the
portraits of drachms from Eastern mints (mostly located in today’s Afghanistan) seem taken out of a comic strip with their exaggerated features or disproportional
head shapes like the ones showing Phraates IV, Phraatakes, and Artabanos II. As a rule, the neck is overly sturdy, the top of the
head above the diadem shrunken:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-122104,
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-122590.

Other likenesses of Artabanos II show a punched-in mouth
area or a missing upper jaw:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-124262,
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-124293.
A group of BI drachms, generally minted in Nisa or Mithradatkart appear to have
had their dies cut after children’s drawings. They show Gotarzes II, Vardanes II, and Vologases I with long straight noses, sometimes missing or shortened upper jaws, and a bewildered expression. Here is one of the nicer examples:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-124423.
A handful of diobols probably minted in
Persis have rather unflattering
portraits of an old
man (Vologases II) or very sketchy ones (Pakoros II):
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-124780,
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-124925,
These obv dies that look as if they were cut in a great hurry, combined with almost meaningless reverses can also be found with drachms of Pakoros II, most likely also stemming from a (inofficial ?)
mint in
Persis:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-124923,
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-124924.
Although many well done
portraits of
Sellwood’s Vologases III exist, there is the occasional slip up:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-125396.
Some tetras are also amazingly unappealing, not always for lack of celator skill. This Sellw. 30.2 is well-cut with great detail, but not exactly flattering:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-119660,
Vologases V on the other hand issued beautiful facing drachms, but he seems to have abandoned any supervision over the production of
his tetras:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-126069.
Enough ugliness. There are many reasons for it, first of all that today, we may have a different idea about what is attractive. Also, the breathtaking skill of the Greek celators declined and disappeared rapidly after the establishment of the
Parthian Empire. Other valid explanations are that coins were minted hurriedly during
military campaigns, in hiding as inofficial or forged currency, or with more primitive equipment in the mountains of Afghanistan.
So, here are some recently acquired
Parthian tetras:
1 Orodes II which attracted my attention with its somewhat debonair
portrait of a younger
king:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-143676,
1 Vologases II tdr of which I have but a few - which is not really surprising as he just
had about 3 years in which to issue coins:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-143679;and a
rare Pakoros II tdr which I
had on my wanted list for years. One of its previous owners seems to have scoured it with a brillo:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-143681.
That’s all for today, and probably for a while,
thanks again for showing interest,
Schatz
