Hi all, I've been trying to figure out the mintmark and date on this drachm of Kavad I and I'm not having much luck. I was hoping someone here might have an idea: The first letter of the mintmark is clearly D, but after that... I'm just not sure. The year just sort of looks like mumbling in Pahlavi. On closer inspection, the year seems to end in T', which would indicate a year in the 20s. Maaaaaybe year 26? Any suggestions are welcome.
maybe you can find it here: http://grifterrec.rasmir.com/sasania/sasanian.html It looks like: Kavad I (Second reign 499 - 531 AD) AR Drachm Mint: DYNAS Regnal year: 35
You can also access the pdf "Arabic Coins and how to read them" by Richard Plant here: Sorry, my bad: Not relevant to Pahlavi script
Thanks @cmezner for the suggestions. I guess the mint could be DYNAS, allowing for the variability of Pahlavi script. The second and third letter on my coin look almost identical, but the second should be much shorter than the third. Also, the last upright part of the S seems to be missing. Oh well, close enough for government work, as they say. I think the year is 36 (ShShSYH), with the H being a bit squished and looking more like a T. I'm a bit puzzled by your link to Richard Plant's book on reading Arabic coins. I own a copy of the book, and it is indeed very useful, but I don't see how it's relevant to Sasanian coins, which use Pahlavi script (except for a few of the late Arab-Sasanian types which include some Arabic alongside the Pahlavi).
Looking at the date table, yes, it could be 36 - to my untrained eyes in Pahlavi script it could also be 35? You are right, my bad. Just got confused between Arabic script and Pahlavi script when I was trying to find a reference for the script. Will try to edit my reply
One of them ends in S and one ends in W. (Sorry, I had to make the obvious joke.) The Pahlavi letter S has two, slightly curved pieces above a horizontal line, like so: _)_) while the letter W is basically a slightly curvy vertical line that extends both above and below the horizontal. If the last letter of my OP mintmark is W, that would explain the apparent lack of one vertical bit of S; but W should extend below the horizontal, which the last letter on my coin clearly doesn't. Again, I think we should blame the die engravers and/or the inherent variability in Pahlavi script. Since DYNAS and DYNAW are almost certainly the same mint (possibly Dinavar), I don't think it really matters. As for why the same mint was abbreviated DYNAS and DYNAW (and also DYNAT and DYN): I don't know, and probably nobody else knows, either. Sasanian mintmarks are poorly understood, and most attributions are based on indirect and incomplete evidence.
