Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1603. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PARTHIA, Kings of. Mithradates II (?). 123-88 BC. AR Tetradrachm (15.99 gm). Seleukeia mint. Diademed bust right / BASILEWS ARSAKOU right, EPIFANOUS FILELLHNOS left, Demeter enthroned left, holding Nike in right hand, cornucopiae in left, nereid supporting throne; TY and monogram in exergue. Shore -; Sellwood 23.2; Le Rider, Susa pl. lxxi, -. Nice VF, attractive portrait. ($2500)

As Mr. Sellwood remarks in the introduction to this section, the tetradrachms of Type 23 have a quite different portrait ­ and not merely less aged ­ than is depicted on Type 24. Building on this artistic evidence, Dr. Assar is presently compiling evidence from cuneiform tablets suggesting that there may be a gap between the reigns of Artabanus I and Mithradates II, and that Type 23 may actually be the coinage of a previously unidentified king, perhaps one of Mithradates II's brothers who is known to have been killed in battle.