Drachm ca. 1st century B.C. Parthian Numismatists - the scholars who study coins - refer to the front’ side of the coin, which usually features the head of a person or god, as the obverse,’ and the back’ side as the reverse.’On the obverse of this silver coin, a bust of the king faces to the left. He has a long beard and a large nose, and he wears a domed hat with earflaps (called a tiara’) with a diadem (the headband worn by victorious athletes in ancient Greece) tied over it. The tiara is decorated with three semicircles of dots around a crescent. He wears a necklace or torque around his neck.The reverse shows a figure facing left standing before an altar with a round flame emerging from the top of it. The figure carries a long, thin object, usually interpreted as a Zoroastrian ritual implement called a barsom.’ A Persian inscription, reading "King Darev, son of King Vadfradad," surrounds the image.This coin was minted by King Darev II of Persis, called Darius in Greek, sometim