Historical Context

The kingdom of Persis, known in Old Persian as Parsa and centered in the modern Fars province of southwestern Iran, represented the ancestral core of the Achaemenid Empire. After the collapse of the Seleucid administrative apparatus in Iran during the second century BCE, the local dynasts of Persis reasserted regional sovereignty while gradually being absorbed into the political sphere of the Arsacid Parthian Empire as autonomous vassal rulers.

Persis numismatic history unfolds across three primary phases. The earliest phase comprised the Frataraka governors, who reigned from approximately the third to the mid-second century BCE, striking silver with Zoroastrian temple architecture, fire altars, and Persian satrapal headdresses known as the kyrbasia. By the late second and first centuries BCE, local dynasts adopted the formal royal title of king, or malka, reflecting sovereign status within an Arsacid feudal framework. The third phase, spanning the first century BCE to the overthrow of the Parthians in 224 CE, witnessed a stylistic transition characterized by Hellenistic-Parthian court fashions, triskeles designs, and dynastic double-portrait compositions.

Pakor II ruled within this later sub-Arsacid milieu, generally placed by modern chronological estimates in the early to mid-first century CE, approximately 10 to 50 CE. Although acknowledging Arsacid paramountcy, the kings of Persis preserved native Iranian courtly traditions, language, and Zoroastrian cult institutions. This unbroken cultural continuum ultimately empowered Ardashir, ruler of Persis, to extinguish the Arsacid dynasty in 224 CE and establish the Sasanian Empire.

Obverse Iconographic Composition

The obverse composition of the standard silver obol of Pakor II presents a regal male bust oriented facing left, executed in high relief. The monarch is depicted with mature, aristocratic facial features, including a neatly trimmed beard, a prominent or aquiline nose, and an almond-shaped eye.

His hair is styled in structured, horizontal waves or finely rendered ridges that gather behind the head into a substantial, hemispherical bun covering the ear. This hairstyle is a distinctive hallmark of late Arsacid and sub-Arsacid Iranian court portraiture. Circling his brow is a royal diadem tied at the nape of the neck, with short diadem ties trailing behind. Unlike earlier rulers of Persis who wore the pleated kyrbasia, Pakor II appears bareheaded aside from the diadem.

A segmented or beaded torque encircles the base of the royal neck, serving as an emblem of nobility. The portrait module is framed by a linear or dotted circular border, though off-center striking on small fractional dies routinely displaces this border beyond the flan edge.

Obverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

On fractional denominations such as the silver obol, the obverse is struck without an engraved legend or the royal name is located entirely outside the striking boundary of the die.

When marginal die traces survive on exceptionally broad flans, fragmentary letters in lapidary Imperial Aramaic script appear behind the monarch's head. However, the vast majority of surviving obol dies were engraved either entirely anepigraphic on the obverse face or deliberately configured with minimal lettering intended to yield priority to the relief portrait.

Reverse Iconographic Composition

The reverse design of the primary obol series represents a striking departure from earlier Persis coin types. In place of the traditional fire altar, temple architecture, and winged figures of Ahura Mazda, the reverse features a second left-facing male royal bust.

The reverse portrait closely mirrors the stylistic conventions of the obverse. It depicts a bearded head facing left with waves of textured hair, a large hair tuft covering the ear, a diademed brow, and a segmented torque around the neck. On poorly struck or heavily circulated fractional specimens, the reverse portrait can appear indistinct or worn flat, but well-preserved dies demonstrate careful relief work commensurate with the obverse die.

This deliberate double-portrait composition represents one of the defining visual innovations of the mid-Persis regal coinage, pairing two near-identical royal effigies across the two sides of a single denomination.

Reverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The legend on the reverse, when preserved, is rendered in Imperial Aramaic, the standard administrative and epigraphic script employed throughout Hellenistic and Parthian Iran.

The royal formula transliterates into Latin characters as pkwr mlk' or pkwr mlk, translating directly into English as 'King Pakor'. In accordance with rigorous numismatic recording standards, mechanical font substitutions into digital Aramaic Unicode character blocks are avoided, as standard reference catalogues publish these coin inscriptions through transliterated text, hand-drawn die facsimiles, or photographic plates rather than standardized digital typesetting.

Because obol flans typically span only 7 to 14 mm in diameter, the engraved legends on the dies are rarely captured intact on the finished coin. The inscription commonly presents as truncated, blundered, or positioned entirely off the planchet. Epigraphic formulas containing the extended patronymic naming the king's father belong exclusively to the triskeles drachms of Pakor I and are not engraved on the double-portrait obol coinage of Pakor II.

Typology and Documented Variants

The silver obols assigned to Pakor II divide into two primary module variants, alongside a rare fractional emission featuring an eagle reverse. The classification system developed by Pieter Anne van 't Haaff and correlated with the earlier typology of Michael Alram distinguishes these varieties based on flan format, weight, and compositional elements.

Documented Variants Overview

  • Broad Flan Obol (van 't Haaff Type 590; Alram 590; BMC p. 230, pl. XXXV, 8):

    • Flan Module: Broad, thin flan with a diameter ranging from 11 mm to 14 mm.
    • Metrology: Weight ranges between approximately 0.50 g and 0.68 g.
    • Iconography: Obverse bust left wearing diadem, segmented torque, and wide ear-covering hair bun; reverse matching bust left. The reverse is typically struck without an inscription or displays only faint traces on the flan perimeter.
    • Documented Exemplars: Metropolitan Museum of Art object 36.30.329 (13 mm flan, excavated at Qasr-i Abu Nasr); Baldwin's Auction 39, lot 1345 (0.65 g); Timeline Auction (March 2025), lot 3063 (0.52 g, 13 mm).

  • Compact Flan Obol (van 't Haaff Type 594; Alram 594; Tyler-Smith parcel 153 and 167):

    • Flan Module: Compact, thick flan with a diameter ranging from 7 mm to 10 mm.
    • Metrology: Weight ranges between approximately 0.40 g and 0.58 g.
    • Iconography: Obverse bust left on a concentrated flan; reverse matching bust left, occasionally preserving truncated Imperial Aramaic letters such as pkwr or mlk behind the neck.
    • Documented Exemplars: Sunrise Collection no. 621 (0.56 g, ex New York Sale 37, lot 287); Numismatik Naumann Auction 100, lot 411 (0.46 g, 9 mm).

  • Eagle Reverse Obol (van 't Haaff Type 595C; Sunrise Collection 612):

    • Flan Module: Compact flan measuring approximately 10 mm; average weight between 0.50 g and 0.67 g.
    • Iconography: Obverse bust left wearing a diadem, crowned from behind by an eagle holding a diadem wreath in its beak; reverse eagle standing left with spread wings, holding a diadem in its beak, accompanied by an abbreviated Imperial Aramaic legend.

Direct physical examination and precise recording of flan diameter, die diameter, and weight remain mandatory before any uninspected specimen can be classified into a specific sub-type.

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

The attribution of this series involves significant scholarly debates regarding ruler succession, portrait identity, and mint attribution.

Ruler Sequence Inversion

In his foundational 1986 classification, Michael Alram assigned the double-portrait Persis series to Pakor I and the triskeles reverse series to Pakor II. Subsequent hoard analyses by Susan Tyler-Smith in 2004, alongside chronological re-evaluations by Dietrich Klose, Wilhelm Müseler, and Pieter Anne van 't Haaff, demonstrated that the triskeles reverse coinage chronologically preceded the double-portrait issues. Modern consensus therefore inverts the sequence: Pakor I issued the triskeles types, while Pakor II issued the double-bust types. To avoid numismatic renumbering confusion, van 't Haaff retained Alram's catalog numbers 588 through 594 but transferred the heading to Pakor II.

Identity of the Reverse Portrait

Because silver obols lack an explicit qualifying patronymic, three distinct interpretations have been proposed for the identity of the reverse bust:

  1. Self-Duplication: The ruling king is represented twice on the coin, reiterating sovereign authority on both faces.
  2. Patronymic Homage: The reverse bust represents the ruler's deceased father, serving as an ancestral validation of legitimacy comparable to older Achaemenid and later Sasanian dynastic issues.
  3. Designated Successor: The portrait portrays a crown prince or junior co-regent appointed to secure dynastic continuity. None of these hypotheses can be decisively verified from the surviving fractional dies.

Mint Localization and Absolute Chronology

The traditional assignment of Persis silver obols to a central mint at Istakhr or Persepolis is an administrative deduction based on the political capital of Persis and regional hoard provenance, notably finds from Qasr-i Abu Nasr near Shiraz. The coins themselves carry no explicit mint signatures. Furthermore, because Persis coinage does not bear regnal years or absolute calendar dates, the timeframe of the early to mid-first century CE remains an approximate estimate.

References

  1. Silver obol of Pakor, King of Persis (Object Record 323508, Object No. 36.30.329). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, excavated at Qasr-i Abu Nasr, Shiraz (Rogers Fund, 1936)
  2. Catalogue of Persis Coinage, ca. 280 B.C.–A.D. 228. van 't Haaff, P. A. (2020), Classical Numismatic Group, pp. 128–135, Types 588–595 & 596–598
  3. A Parcel of Persis Drachms, Half Drachms and Obols. Tyler-Smith, S. (2004), The Numismatic Chronicle, Vol. 164, pp. 253–271, obol parcels 153 and 167
  4. Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. Hill, G. F. (1922), British Museum, pp. 229–230, pl. XXXV, nos. 7–8
  5. The New York Sale, Auction 37, Lot 287. Auction archive record, January 5, 2016, AR Obols of Pakor II (ex Sunrise Collection 620 & 621)
  6. The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(1): The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanid Periods. Yarshater, E., ed. (1983), Cambridge University Press, pp. 300–305
  7. Stephen Album Rare Coins, Fixed Price and Auction Lists 278 and 281. Album, S. (2014), Lots 152289–152295, Persis fractional listings
  8. Nomina Propria Iranica in Nummis: Materialgrundlagen zu den iranischen Personennamen auf antiken Münzen. Clearly labelled further reading: Alram, M. (1986), Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 182–184
  9. Statthalter, Rebellen, Könige: Die Münzen aus Persepolis von Alexander dem Großen zu den Sasaniden. Clearly labelled further reading: Klose, D. O. A., and Müseler, W. (2008), Staatliche Münzsammlung München, pp. 27–42
  10. Numismatic Art of Persia: The Sunrise Collection, Part I: Ancient – 650 BC to AD 650. Clearly labelled further reading: Nelson, B. R., ed. (2011), Classical Numismatic Group, nos. 612, 620, 621