Identifying Look-alike Parthian Drachms

There are two main groups of "pointed beard" drachms: those with and those without an earring on the obverse portrait. Group I is comprised of the drachms without an earring while Group II includes coins with the earring. The absence or presence of the earring is clearly seen on these two example photos:

No earring	With earring

Group I: No earring
Group II: With earring

Group I: Differentiating the Drachms of
Artabanus II (c. A.D. 10 - 38) and Vologases I (c. A.D. 51 - 88)

The coins in this group have a pointed beard and no earring on the obverse portrait.

• Artabanus II (type 61) drachms do not have an earring. The hair is straight or nearly so,
  • Exception: subtype 61.9 has a tapered but square-cut beard and is described on the "Square Beards" page
     
• One drachm of Vologases I (type 71.4) has a pointed beard, no wart and no earring; the hair has three distinct waves
  • The remaining drachms of Vologases I (type 71) have tapered but square-cut beards, a wart, an earring and five distinct waves in the hair. Their identification is described on the "Square Beards" page

Group II: Differentiating the Drachms of
Artabanus III (c. A.D. 80 - 90)
Vologases III (c. A.D. 105 - 147)
Mithradates IV (c. A.D.129 - 140) and
Unknown King III (c. A.D. 140)

The coins in this group have a pointed beard and an earring on the obverse portrait; they can be differentiated by the reverse legend and the number of pendants attached to the diadem on the obverse portrait.

• CASE 1 (Aramaic legend)

  • The first step is to check line one of the legend on reverse of the drachm. If it is  Aramaic instead of Greek, the coin is Mithradates IV (type 82)
     

• CASE 2 (Tiara has two pendants)

  • If the tiara of the obverse portrait has two pendants, the coin is Mithradates IV (type 82). Since line one of the reverse legend is often off the flan or illegible, this provides an alternate way of identifying type 82 drachms
     

• CASE 3 (Tiara has three pendants)

  • As a rule, pointed beard drachms with three pendants are Vologases III (type 78)

  • Special cases:

    • There is one subtype of Artabanus III (type 74.7) which has three pendants, but appears to be a "pointed beard" drachm because the square beard was cut away on the coin (not the die) to a triangular shape

    • There is one subtype of Mithradates IV (type 82.4) which has three pendants instead of the usual two. It can be quickly distinguished from the Vologases III drachms by the Aramaic legend in line one on the reverse. If line one of the reverse legend is illegible, these coins will be difficult to differentiate from Vologases III (type 78)

    • There is one subtype of Unknown King III (type 83.2) which has three pendants instead of the usual four. One original pendant has been cut away, one diadem loop removed and the beard cut away to a triangular shape. Further confirmation is given by line three of the reverse legend, which is composed of two dots instead of the barbarized version of the Greek word ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ seen on drachms of Vologases III (type 78) and Mithradates IV (type 82)
       

• CASE 4 (Tiara has four pendants)

  • If the tiara of the obverse portrait has four pendants, the coin is Unknown King III (type 83.1)

This page last updated 23 Feb 2021