Does Khusro need a dentist?

Sasanian Kingdom. AR drachm (30 mm). Khusro II (590- 628), Royal Year 21. Meshan mint. Obverse: Crowned bust of Khusro right, Pahlavi legend around with name and title. Reverse: Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants, to right mintmark MY (mesh), to left date 21. This coin: Frank S. Robinson Auction 117, lot 349 (December 7, 2021).

(Note: History section contains text re-used from an old post of mine.)

Khusro II, also known as Khusro Aparviz (Khusro the Victorious), was the last great king of the Sasanian Persian empire, and also saw the start of its downfall. He was the son of Hormazd IV, who in 590 was blinded and killed in a palace intrigue, leaving Khusro II king. However, a nobleman named Vahram who had been disgraced by Hormazd, recast himself as the avenger of Hormazd and claimed that Khusro had been behind the plot to kill him. Khusro was forced to flee to the Byzantine empire and appeal for help to Emperor Maurice. Meanwhile, Hormazd had himself crowned as Hormazd VI. With Maurice's help, Khusro reclaimed his throne in 591, and Hormazd was hunted down and killed. In 602, the Byzantine emperor Maurice was killed by Phocas, and Khusro used this murder of his former benefactor as the premise for an invasion of Byzantine territory, quickly taking land in Syria and western Anatolia. In 614 Khusro's troops advanced south to the Holy Land, conquering Jerusalem and carrying off the alleged True Cross, and by 618 he had conquered Egypt. He also expanded Sasanian control in the Arabian peninsula during this time. In 622, the Byzantines under Heraclius started their counter-attack into northwestern Iran, where they burned a major Zoroastrian sanctuary in revenge for Khusro's theft of the True Cross. By 628, the Byzantines had reconquered all the territory that Khusro had taken from them, temporarily took the Sasanian capitol at Ktesiphon, and regained the True Cross, to much rejoicing. The Sasanian nobles seized Khusro, put him on trial for his mismanagement of the war (among other charges), and predictably found him guilty and executed him. He was succeeded by a series of weak non-entities, none of whom could stand up to the expanding Muslim power to their south, and in 651 the last Sasanian king was killed, ending the dynasty.

Khusro II is one of the better-documented Sasanian kings, largely because of his proximity in time to the early Muslim writers. He is generally considered a sympathetic figure in Persian culture, and is the hero of several classical romances. Despite his theft of the True Cross, he was overall tolerant of Christianity, and his beloved wife Shirin was a Christian. During his reign, he also reportedly received a letter from an Arabian man named Muhammad, who was trying to interest the emperor in a new religious movement. Khusro angrily tore up the "insolent" letter and ordered his vassal in Yemen to capture the author. (Spoiler: Muhammad was not captured.) Coins of Khusro II are the most common Sasanian coins available today, and are usually relatively inexpensive even for high-grade examples. The mint of Meshan was not a city but rather a district in southern Iraq, encompassing the former Parthian vassals of Mesene and Characene. This coin shows evidence of doubling on the obverse, but what I found most interesting was how the wear pattern on his beard makes it look like Khusro is showing his teeth! This was something of a "throwaway" bid for me as it wasn't my main goal in the auction (that was the Roman Republican as featuring Janus that I showed last week), but this was a nice little bonus win. Please show your Sasanian coins, or whatever else is related.

 

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I think he needs an elbalmer,,,,,

 

...that's a perfect Halloween coin

 

Mine has the same issue.


Chosroes II (Khusro II) (591-628 A.D.)
Sasanian Empire
AR Drachm
O: GDH apzwt | hwslwb
Facing bust, head right, wearing winged crown with star and crescent, inside double dotted-border, crescents with stars at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock.
R: sycsyh | RD
Fire altar with two attendants standing facing, both hands on sword hilt, crescents on heads, all inside triple dotted-border, crescents with stars at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock.
Year 33 (622/623)
LYW for Rev-Ardashir
4.1g
32mm
Göbl SN, Xusro II, IIb/3 (Plate XIII/211-215); Valentine 50

 

@Parthicus...."YIKES"!.....That's a scary looking face!....Nice clean date and mint though.....Neat coin!
Sassanian Drachm of Valkash 484 - 488 C.E.
Obverse: Bust of King Valkash to right,,, "SCREAMING AS HIS SOUL IS BEING SUCKED OUT FROM WITHIN",,,wearing mural crown with korymbos set on crescent, ribbon on left shoulder, flames on right
Reverse: Fire altar with ribbons and head of Valkash to right on shaft, flanked by two attendants, star and crescent flanking flames.
Mint LYH Rev-Ardashir Khuzistan.

 

Nice coin @Parthicus . My Khusro also needs a dentist.


Sasanian Empire
Khusro II (AD 590 – 628)
AR Drachm, BBA mint (court mint), Regnal year 30, struck ca. AD 619 / 620
Obv.: Pahlavi script at left and right. Khusro bust facing, head right, wearing winged crown with star and crescent, inside double dotted border, crescent and stars at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock.
Rev.: Date (left) and mint mark (right). Fire altar with two attendents, inside triple dotted border, crescent and stars at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock.
Ref.: Göbl SN type II
Ex Sallent Collection, Ex JAZ Numismatics, Ex Aegean Numismatics

 

Khusru II, AHM (Hamadan mint), regnal year 7

 

Terrific writeup and, hmm, Very evocative example, @Parthicus. I've been thoroughly sold on the Sasanians being indispensible to understanding late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. --Yes, I had had Lots of encouragement!
These are the three I have pics of. All earlier, when the royal dental program was a little better. Using the orthography of Touraj Daryaee, Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. (Best overview in English you're likely to find.)
Hormizd II, 302-309 CE

Yazdgird I, 399-420

Wahram V, 420-438

 

Mine has had his teeth replaced with crowns.

 

My other Khusru II, BYSh mint, Ry.8

 

@GregH, that was Good. No, Really. :<}}}
And the coin is pretty good, Too!

 

Parthicus, That poor fellow looks like a cast member of The Walking Dead . My only example of Khusro II is pictured below. Can any CT member identify the mint for this coin ? These coins are very confusing to me .....

 

The guys at zeno.ru can ID that coin for you.

 

coin_nut, I did go to zeno.ru & found the message "to download you must be a registered user", & then found another message "New user registrations not allowed" .....

 

I hesitate to post anything serious here but this thread has pointed out something I had never noticed before that seem quite obvious. Many Sasanian drachms, certainly Khusro II, show the beard of the king indicated by a group of dots with the bottom row cut in the die so as to make that border more bold and raised on the coin. When the coin gets some wear or when the strike was on the weak side, that border row set of dots merges together into a solid line. I'll add two coins that show intermediate stages. Well struck and unworn coins like the one shown by Al Kowsky have nicely separated dots. My first below shows separate dots near the chin but merged ones back on the jowl. My second one shows the entire border merged into a solid line. The coin that started this discussion has that line worn down even with the face leaving only the interior beard dots which now look like teeth in a clean shaven ghoul. There is a lot of weakness in other obverse details on this coin. It is hard for me to understand how the reverse faces are so detailed. Note in particular my last coin shows protruding lips above the beard and a wavy top line which I take to be the moustache long and swept back. Some of what we see in all these coins is from differences in style as cut by the various mints but some of it is caused by either striking differences or wear patterns. My coin of the MY mint has a weak reverse and better obverse while the Parthicus coin is the opposite. I had never noticed that the border row of beard dots was cut differently from the infill dots but it shows on most of the coins posted to this thread. Khusru II was king for a long time and used a large number of mints each with its own style. A 'complete' collection of his coins would be hundreds (or more?) variations. As it is, his coins are almost a joke since they outnumber all the other Sasanian kings combined and many of us prefer 'one per ruler' sets. I like Sasanian coins but have never made the necessary commitment to their study that would make me comfortable reading the legends or learning the style characteristics associated with the mints. They are hard avoiding duplicates to buy since many dealers differ in how they read the mints and even the 'experts' differ on how to read some of the script.

 

You would scream too if your shoulder is on fire.

 

I just wanted to add a few comments.

1. Everyone is saying that the portrait on my OP coin looks like a zombie. Well, when I first posted it, I was not thinking of that at all, the only odd feature I saw was the weird mouth area (which I think has been previously pointed out in older threads as frequent in worn portraits of Khusro II). But now that it's been mentioned, yes, I definitely see how the "shrunken", darkened eye sockets and "decaying" mouth give poor ol' Khusro a zombified look. I'll have to remember this coin for the "Halloween coin" threads that are sure to pop up in October.

2. @dougsmit : Don't be worried to add serious comments to this thread (or any other silly-seeming threads I may start). I'm afraid I haven't studied enough Sasanian coins to have a good feel for the different mints' styles yet (ask me again in 20 years), but agree that it would be an interesting study. I have been making an effort to read all the inscriptions on my Sasanian coins (including royal names, not just mintmarks and dates) so I can better understand the coins I own, and also possibly spot misattributions by dealers. Sasanian coins can (usually) be attributed to ruler based only on crown details, but that area of the coin can be weak, and some of the latest Sasanian coins (and imitatives like the first series of Arab-Sasanian) copied Khusro II's portrait slavishly (or for certain usurpers had their own names carved onto dies meant for Khusro). In general, I feel that any coin that I can't read myself is a coin I don't truly understand.

3. @Al Kowsky : Well, I can solve this in three ways. First, here's a handy comparison I made between the mintmark on your coin, my OP coin, and Doug's Meehan-Mint coin:

Notice any similarities? Yes, all three coins are from the MY (Meshan mint). A second approach is to just read the letters. Now, Pahlavi script is very confusing, with many similar-looking letters, and often poorly-engraved weakly struck, or worn down. (I've often complained about Pahlavi, and I think the Persians made the right call in giving it up.) Anyway: the first letter (Pahlavi reads from right to left, like any sensible Middle Eastern script) looks kind of like a lower-case Greek alpha mirror-reversed. That letter, which is a very distinctive one in Pahlavi, is M. The second letter is a bit harder- there are several similar letters like it- but perusing the list of accepted mintmark identities shows that MY is the best fit. Then, we just look up in the chart what mint MY is thought to correspond to, and hope that it's one that's solidly identified. The best charts for both Sasanian mintmarks and Sasanian dates (which are spelled out in words) were created by the late Tom Mallon, and are currently available from Forum:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian Mints
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian Dates
Finally, you could come on here or some other site like Zeno, and ask for someone else to read the mintmark/date, etc. for you. If you're lucky, someone like me (who enjoys both helping people and using his knowledge of obscure subjects) will answer, and if you're even luckier, their answer might be correct.

 

So I will try my luck. Here’s mine. Is there a mintmark on this coin? I know very little about this type.

No dotted beard, unfortunately.

 

@Gavin Richardson : Mintmarks on Sasanian coins start with Varhran IV (388-399) and dates start a while later, by the late Sasanian period both features are present in a uniform location:



The mintmark on your coin is very clear and I read it as BBA (Court Mint). (The mintmark of BYSh (Bishapur) is similar, but yours looks a lot more like BBA than BYSh. See what I mean about Pahlavi script being hard to read?) As for the date, I am pretty sure it starts off DWE but the second half is harder. DWE is used to start dates that are in the form "two and", so since your coin is of Khusro II the date must be either 12, 22, or 32 (32 seems most likely to me but I am not 100% sure).

Now, how accurate was my attempt? Anyone else want to weigh in?

 

Wow. That’s very informative, even if it’s difficult to be definitive. Thanks!