Had one of these in my sights for a good while, but finally pulled the trigger in the last Leu auction. Host coin: Peroz I AR Drachm 457-484 AS mint (modern Khuzestan, unknown city) Countermarks: All applied in Central Asia, ca. 6th century AD #1, 3:00 Soghdian tkyn, "Tegin" Göbl 82a #2, 9:00 Soghdian tkyn, different calligraphy Göbl 82 #3, 6:00 Soghdian dscy/bgy, "God the Creator" Göbl 79 Peroz I was the younger son of Yazdegerd II. When his father died in 457, Hormizd III rightfully inherited the throne, but Peroz felt him unfit for rule. Peroz split the royal houses of Iran in his favor, and fled to recruit allies of the Hephthalite Huns to the northeast. They agreed to help him, and in 459 Hormizd III was captured and executed, leaving Peroz undisputed on the throne. The early years of his reign were marred by drought and famine, further complicated by the fact that the Sassanians were required to pay tributes to the Kidarite huns of NW India, following several disastrous defeats earlier that century. Attempting to weasel his way out of tribute, Peroz dressed up a peasant girl as an Iranian princess and offered her in marriage to the Kidarite king. This was discovered, and the Kidarites requested 300 elite soldiers from Peroz to help train their armies. The soldiers returned to Iran with their hands cut off with a message that the ruse was discovered, whereupon Peroz declared war on the Kidarites in about 464. After being denied a loan by Byzantine emperor Leo, Peroz once again turned to the Hephthalites for aid, who agreed to help him. The Kidarites were defeated by the Sassanian-Hephthalite alliance by about 466, and the Huns took it upon themselves to fill the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Kidarites. This no doubt concerned Peroz, and for whatever foolhardy reason, he turned on his former friends and allies, hoping to topple them in a surprise attack in 474. This failed disastrously, and Peroz was captured and held captive. Emperor Zeno paid this first ransom, in exchange for the promise of peace between the Sassanians and Byzantines. Humiliated, Peroz could not leave well enough alone, and plotted a second punitive campaign in which he sought to vanquish his former allies. Attacking them in the late 470s or early 480s, he was once again defeated, captured, and forced to ransom himself. The Hephthalites demanded "30 mule carts" of silver coin, probably in the hundreds of thousands or millions of drachms. Emptying the treasury, he could only pay 20 carts of silver, and was forced to send his son Kavadh into captivity as collateral for the other 10, which he paid a few years later after raising taxes on his subjects. Utterly humiliated, Peroz somehow got it into his mind that "the third time's the charm" and waged war one final time in 484, hoping to recover his lost treasury and his dignity. This time, the Sassanian king perished in battle, purportedly when his army was tricked into being driven into a deep trench that was dug for the purpose of ensnaring his army. This marked the lowest point of the Sassanian empire prior to their defeat at the hands of the Arabs, as the Hepthalites had reduced the grand Sassanian Empire to the status of a tributary state, and they even deposed Peroz's brother Balash in favor of the more pliable Kavadh. Briefly, the Hepthalites ranked among the world's superpowers, equaled in size, wealth, and might only by the Byzantines and China. The Hephthalites however were defeated a century later by a joint alliance between the Sassanians under Khusro I, grandson of Peroz, and the Turkic Khaganate. It is believed that these drachms of Peroz, all heavily worn and usually covered with Soghdian-language countermarks, were most likely part of the mule-carts used to ransom Peroz and his son, as many of these countermarks only appear on coins of Peroz. Numismatically, the ransom of Peroz was one of the most significant events of Central Asian numismatics, as the sudden influx of these coins entrenched them as the new standard of what "good money" should look like, sparking imitative series that would continue in one form or another for nearly 900 years. The Hepthalites themselves minted imitations of relatively crude fabric, adding four large pellets to the obverse die margins These persisted for perhaps 100-200 years, terminating in northern Tokharistan Shortly after the initial ransom, an unknown party introduced the type to India, where they were imitated locally Became the "dramma" AKA Gadhaiya Paisa, the chief silver coin of post-Gupta India And finally fizzled out when Malwa fell to the Muslim invaders, ca 1350 AD
I enjoy your posts. Once upon a time, I had a good collection of Hunnic and related coins. I no longer have the coins but I still find the topic fascinating.
Great writeup. Peroz (459 - 484 A.D.) AR Drachm O: Crowned bust right, crescent on forehead. R: Fire altar with attendants and ribbon, star and crescent flanking flames; “Peroz” in Pahlavi to left, mint to right. 26mm 4g
Op, do you have a source why you think these countermarked issues were from the ransom payments? I have quite a few, and in hand their character reminds me much more of the Tokharistan issues that Sassanian ones, especially the metal. I have always assumed this meant most of these heavily countermarked issues were local imitations of Peroz drachms, minted by the Hepthalites after the Peroz issues ran out. There are even some "Peroz" coins like this with one or two of the "counterstamps" built into the die.
AS seems to be a common mint for Peroz without the c/m but mine is from the undated period so I have no idea if it is even close to a date that could be related to the ransom.
Following the comment by @medoraman, I thought I might add some clarification. While there is reason to think, by virtue of the countermarks, that the op host coin came into Central Asia originally as part of the ransom of Peroz, the countermarks themselves were almost certainly applied later. The title tegin is Turkic, which suggests that the countermarks must have been applied after the defeat of the Hephthalites by the Sasanians and Turks, that is to say after c. 560.
Btw OP, I hope you do not take offense of the questions. I am simply trying to figure them out as well. 6th and 7th century Central Asia is very "messy" when it comes to coins. They also have similar coins with countermarks on coins of Kavad, then the Turkish pieces, etc.
Great coin and a wonderful post! My Peroz (Susa/AY mint): And a very base metal version of the Northern Tokharistan you showed (dated by Alyoshin to no later than 590). I love the countermarks on these:
Thanks all! Great coins and discussion. @medoraman - My understanding is that these countermarked pieces are official imperial drachms on the basis that they 1) Come from a variety of mints 2) Include both type 1, 2, and 3 crowns 3) Are literate and inscribed in Pahlavi, not Bactrian (like my 4-dot Hunnic copy, supposedly swapping the mint for ALCHONO and the obverse legend for BALKH) or nonsense scribble marks (like most early Indian copies) The attribution to the ransom events is of course due to that being the single largest exportation of Peroz drachms in history; of course some of them probably ended up there by way of international trade, but those odds are small compared to the amount of coin used for the ransom.
