My First Coin In A Year And A Half - A Gap Filled

It's a great area to collect, Steve. Much fun.

The "ubers" include the handful of rulers from the Early Kamnaskirid Dynasty, below. Coins from these guys are really hard to come by. I should mention: Phraates II of Parthia served as ruler or viceroy there during this period too, and he did issue coins at Susa...but usually those emissions are considered part of the Parthian series rather than Elymaean - so I don't include him here:

Kamnaskires I Soter
Kamnaskires II Nikephorus
(Some believe the above two were actually one fellow - sort of like Azes I/II in the Indo-Scythian series)
Okkonapses (usurper)
Tigraios (usurper who issued the above coin)
Dareios (usurper)

Some particular emissions from the Later Kamnaskirid Dynasty are rare but, generally, one can find coins of the three rulers of that period without difficulty: Kamnaskires III (with Anzaze), Kamnaskires IV, and Kamnaskires V.

Coins of the kings of the Elymais Arsacid Dynasty are the most readily available - although, again, there are some rare varieties among the bunch there too.

Congratulations on finding this rare coin and for filling the gap. I sure that being rare you would be hard pressed to find any in better condition. I would need something like this to restart my collecting again. Great find Bob.

A well-loved coin going to a deserving home. Well done Bob!

Bob, glad to see that you have filled a gap in your vast collection and thank you for the history lesson. I have so many to still fill, but the cheapskate that I am, the process is slow. In any case, a rare coin like this, I agree - keep it slabbed. But if you were so inclined, I've seen unslabbed coins sold with the original label and as you well know NGC keeps a digital record of the coin in their database.
A sincere Congrats!

Congrats on you new coin Bob!

Also thanks for such an amazing, informative post!

Jay

Congratulations!

Thanks, guys.

Thanks, Chris. Always nice to see you visit your old haunts here.

Yes, the Elymaeans enjoyed several periods of relative independence from Parthia while the Arsacids were busy with wars on the fringes, as well as with internal conflicts. During the rule of the Kamnaskirids (essentially covering the first half of the history of Elymais), it was during such periods (when Parthia's focus was elsewhere) that Elymais minted its own coinage. Elymais is sometimes referred to as "semi-autonomous." It's not necessarily that Parthia didn't want to rule Elymais with an iron fist. It's just that Parthia didn't always have the resources to do so, and so they were occasionally forced to extend Elymais some autonomy. During the last two centuries of Elymais' existence (first through early third century), an Arsacid (Parthian) dynasty ruled Elymais. So, Parthia was likely pulling the strings at that point.