 KINGS OF KHWAREZMIA. Artav (Artabanos), ca. 1st-2nd Century A.D. Tetradrachm. Bearded bust r. wearing cap-like headdress with brim and beaded backflap, Nike flying r. behind crowning king with a laurel wreath, fillet and double pellet border. Rv. King riding horse r., tamgha behind; blundered Greek legend around: IVIVEΩIE MVΛVI EIΛVIΛV. 13.56 grams. Vainberg type AIII, cf.MIG type 498, Tolstov, ''The Coins of the Shahs of Ancient Khwarizm and the Ancient Khwarizmi Alphabet,'' Vestnik drevney Istorii (Moscow, 1938), pl.VI, 1. Lightly toned Extremely Fine. A superb example of this extremely rare coin. (Est. $5,000-$6,000)
The Khwarezmian monetary types began as barbarous imitations of Baktrian Tetradrachms of Heraios and Eukratides. By the end of the 1st Century B.C./early 1st Century A.D., the Khwarezmians developed their own types by fusing Baktrian, Parthian and Indo-Scythian characteristics with their own. This early coinage is extremely rare and only a handful of examples are known today.
Interestingly, Khwarezm preserved the tradition of this fused style -- though with Khwarezmian, not Greek, legends -- and its old iconographic tradition in coinage even up to the early period of Arab occupation in the 8th Century.
A similar example of this coin (which was noted as the third known specimen) in Very Fine sold in Triton VIII, Jan. 2005 (lot 667) for $6,250 (not including the buyer's fee).
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