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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 8159876, member: 81887&quot;]I just wanted to add a few comments.</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Everyone is saying that the portrait on my OP coin looks like a zombie.&nbsp; 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).&nbsp; But now that it&#039;s been mentioned, yes, I definitely see how the &quot;shrunken&quot;, darkened eye sockets and &quot;decaying&quot; mouth give poor ol&#039; Khusro a zombified look.&nbsp; I&#039;ll have to remember this coin for the &quot;Halloween coin&quot; threads that are sure to pop up in October.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. [USER=19463]@dougsmit[/USER] : Don&#039;t be worried to add serious comments to this thread (or any other silly-seeming threads I may start).&nbsp; I&#039;m afraid I haven&#039;t studied enough Sasanian coins to have a good feel for the different mints&#039; styles yet (ask me again in 20 years), but agree that it would be an interesting study.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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&#039;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&#039;t read myself is a coin I don&#039;t truly understand.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. [USER=97383]@Al Kowsky[/USER] : Well, I can solve this in three ways.&nbsp; First, here&#039;s a handy comparison I made between the mintmark on your coin, my OP coin, and Doug&#039;s Meehan-Mint coin:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1424161[/ATTACH] </p><p>Notice any similarities? <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />&nbsp; Yes, all three coins are from the MY (Meshan mint).&nbsp; A second approach is to just read the letters.&nbsp; Now, Pahlavi script is very confusing, with many similar-looking letters, and often poorly-engraved weakly struck, or worn down.&nbsp; (I&#039;ve often complained about Pahlavi, and I think the Persians made the right call in giving it up.)&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; That letter, which is a very distinctive one in Pahlavi, is M.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Then, we just look up in the chart what mint MY is thought to correspond to, and hope that it&#039;s one that&#039;s solidly identified.&nbsp; 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:</p><p><a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Mints" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Mints" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian Mints</a></p><p><a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Dates" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Dates" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian Dates</a></p><p>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.&nbsp; If you&#039;re lucky, someone like me (who enjoys both helping people and using his knowledge of obscure subjects) will answer, and if you&#039;re even luckier, their answer might be correct.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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