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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 4559039, member: 81887&quot;]One of them ends in S and one ends in W. (Sorry, I had to make the obvious joke.)</p><p><br /></p><p>The Pahlavi letter S has two, slightly curved pieces above a horizontal line, like so:&nbsp; _)_)&nbsp;&nbsp; while the letter W is basically a slightly curvy vertical line that extends both above and below the horizontal.&nbsp; 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&#039;t.&nbsp; Again, I think we should blame the die engravers and/or the inherent variability in Pahlavi script.&nbsp; Since DYNAS and DYNAW are almost certainly the same mint (possibly Dinavar), I don&#039;t think it really matters.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for why the same mint was abbreviated DYNAS and DYNAW (and also DYNAT and DYN): I don&#039;t know,&nbsp; and probably nobody else knows, either.&nbsp; Sasanian mintmarks are poorly understood, and most attributions are based on indirect and incomplete evidence.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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