A hemidrachm and drachm of Ahmadinejad Vadfradad II (well, he does rather look like him and it could be a relative...) Due to the influence of Noob and others I've sought out some examples of coins beyond the usual Greek and Roman ancients. These are surprisingly affordable and are my only 'mint state' ancients. So far KINGDOM OF PERSIS, Vadfradad (Autophradates) II Mid-2nd century BC AR hemidrachm, 2.06 gm Obv: head of Vadfradad right with short beard, wearing diadem and kyrbasia adorned with eagle Rev: fire temple, Ahura-Mazda above; to left, Vadfradad standing right; to right, vexillum standard surmounted by eagle. Ref: Sunrise 578. KINGDOM OF PERSIS, Vadfradad (Autophradates) II Mid-2nd century BC AR drachm, 4.13 gm Obv: head of Vadfradad right with short beard, wearing diadem and kyrbasia adorned with eagle Rev: fire temple, Ahura-Mazda above; to left, Vadfradad standing right; to right, vexillum standard surmounted by eagle Ref: K&M 3/2. Alram 547. Sunrise 576. Not a great deal of information about this kingdom and these coins, but there is some scholarly information here: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/persis-kings-of In looking at these coins and reading the descriptions, I had no idea what a kyrbasia was. From the British Museum: Nor was I familiar with Ahura-Mazda (though I've seen Acuras and Mazdas ). Turns out it is the Zoroastrian God. Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions, began in ancient Iran some 3500 years ago, founded by the prophet Zarathustra. More about Zoroastrians here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/zoroastrian/ And speaking of Zarathustra, for an utterly fantastic jazz rendition of Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, aka the iconic music from 2001: A Space Odyssey ), check out this arrangement by Eumir Deodato: http://www.last.fm/music/Deodato/_/Also sprach Zarathustra ...which I first heard in one of my all-time favorite movies, Being There, the last film Peter Sellers completed. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078841/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
TIF => those are pretty cool coins ... congrats!! Huh? ... those dudes are all about standing around the ol' fire temple/altar, eh? (man, they must have had killer BBQ parties?!!) ... oh, and thanks for the extra-info!!
Yes, zoroastianism is a very old religion, and was tbe state religion of Persis and later the Sassanids. You knew the kings of Persis were the ones who overthrew the Parthian foreigners and restored Persian rule to Persia, right? Ardashir has a coin of Persis, when he was the local client king in Fars, and then later coins issued under Sassanian Persia as shaninshah,(king of kings). Zoroastrianism is still practiced. The largest community of them now is in India. Freddy Mercury was a zoroastrianist.
