A small kingdom on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, this place is known from a few stray mentions in the geographers, and the series of coins issued there. The capital of the kingdom was Charax Spasinou. The series of coins issued there originally copied Seleukid types, both in designs and denomination; but the kingdom was weak, and eventually it passed under Parthian control. Even its nominal independence vanished shortly before 230, when the Sasanians conquered it. The coins, increasingly debased tetradrachms, were issued between the second century BC and the second AD.

Weak as the kings of Characene were, for a while they controlled someone weaker. A sub-kingdom called Oman, with a capital at Forat, was subject to Characene, and this kingdom under one Meredates issued the so-called sub-Characene tetradrachms. Known coins are dated to the 140s AD.