My First Fire Alter

Looks great in hand.



Sassanian Kings, Hormizd II, AD 303-309
AR Drachm, 3.7g; 27 mm, 9h.
Obv.: Bust of Hormizd II right, wearing eagle crown with korymbos,
Rev.: Fire altar with ribbon and bust left in flames, flanked by two attendants.
Reference: SNS type Ia/3a; cf Göbl type I/1a.

Sorry, I forgot the attributes so I had to edit. I was a little excited. Can imagine why?

 

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Say, that looks familiar. Here's the large resolution image if you'd like...

 

That is a really nice coin.

I love the eagle hat. Hmmm, Halloween is coming up. Would anyone recognize who I was impersonating if I wore that hat to work? Come on, I am clearly dressed at Hormizd the second, the eighth king of the Sasanian Empire. Where were you in 302 to 309 AD?

 

What a great first! I'll post mine shortly.

 

A fire altar from Tabaristan


A fire altar from Gujarat, India




A fire altar from the Sassanian Empire

 

A difficult to distinguish fire altar from the Persis:


KINGDOM OF PERSIS, Vadfradad (Autophradates) II
Mid-2nd century BC
AR hemidrachm, 2.06 gm
Obv: head of Vadfradad right with short beard, wearing diadem and kyrbasia adorned with eagle
Rev: fire temple, Ahura-Mazda above; to left, Vadfradad standing right; to right, vexillum standard surmounted by eagle
Ref: Sunrise 578

One of these days I'll get a Shapur drachm with fire altar. He's just too important a figure to do without .

 

I have a couple Fire Alters:


India Gujarat Chalukyas Gadhaiya Paisa BI Drachm 11th C CE Sun Moon Fire Alter Crescent


India Gujarat Chalukyas Gadhaiya Paisa BI Drachm 9th C CE Sun Moon Fire Alter Crescent

 

It should and it's a great coin. Love it!

 

By the way, the ball on the head is supposed to be the Great King's Hair, just like the tresses in his neck. A large ball of hair, a symbol of strength, like Samson's, braided in a net of silk threads studded with pearls (you can see them on your coin)!

 

Those are really cool. You all are spreading my research areas and expanding my curiosity with those. I've been pretty much Greek, Roman & Macedonian until now.

 

Greeks and Romans made some awesome coins, but there is a whole world out there of Asian coinage full of amazingly beautiful and unusual coins that are far different from the typical Greek and Roman stuff you are used to, and you'd do yourself a disservice to completely ignore it.

 

I'd love to get one of that style, very nice ancientnut. here's my only fire altar of the year so far...




Sasanian Empire. Khosrau I. AD 531-579. AR Drachm

O: Crowned bust right, Pahlavi script./R: Fire altar with ribbons and attendants; star and crescent flanking flames; RY date on left (regnal year 28, 558AD, mint signature on right, GU (Gurgon mint). 30 mm, 4.1 g

 

Great OP-addition, Collecting Nut ... congrats

Sassanian Kingdom, Peroz I AR Drahm
459-484 AD

 

I've noticed the big ball on their heads, and I had always wondered what it was. Now I know. Thanks for enlightening me with that info!

 

Khusru II, Sassanian Kingdom, AD 590-628
AR, 31.5mm, 4.12g, 2h
Obv.: Bust of Sassanian king facing right wearing winged crown
Rev.: Fire altar flanked by two attendants

Altars are something I'm interested in.


Cilicia, Mopsos.
AE20, 7.8g, 12h; 2nd century BC
Obv.: Laureate head of Zeus right.
Rev.: MOΨEATΩN; Lighted circular altar on tripod base with lion's legs, M − Π flanking.


Antiochos II Theos, Seleucid Kingdom, BC 261 - 246
AE, 18mm, 4.6g; 12h; Sardes (Sart), Turkey
Obv.: Laureate head of Apollo right, hair falling in spiral curls down neck and beneath ear
Rev.: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ downward on right right, ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ downward on left; Tripod leges with lion paw feet; monograms outer left and outer right; controls, outer left

 

Nice ... sweet eye-appeal on those babies, JWT

 

Thanks man!

 

Here's a bronze of Ardashir V of Persis (c. 212-224 AD):

Unfortunately, it illustrates one reason that facing busts are not often used on coins: even moderate wear makes them look really bad. Anyway, Ardashir V started out as a faithful vassal of the Parthians, but eventually he staged a revolt. In about 224 he killed the last Parthian king, Artabanos I, and declared himself Ardashir I ( 224- 241) of the New Persian dynasty, which is now usually called Sasanian. Here is one of his early coins, a silver obol:

Notice that the king wears a Parthian-style tiara in this early coinage; later he switches over to a more distinctly Sasanian-style crown. Also note the fire altar on these early coins does not have the two attendants at the sides who would appear in almost all later Sasanian coinages.

Sasanian coins are really cool, I am probably going to focus on them once I sell off my Parthian collection. The basic type remains pretty constant throughout the series, and many types are common, but there are enough subtle varieties and rarities to maintain interest. You can even collect the later drachms by year and mint-mark, if you can't shake the US collector mentality

 

Very nice, I don't have any of those types.

Antioch
Year 117/ 68 AD
AE 19
Obvs: ANTIOX EΩN, Head of Zeus laureate.
Revs: ЄTZIP, Lighted alter garlanded.
19mm, 6.7g

 

My coin show Friday produced a drachm of Ardashir I. I had wanted one of this style for some time since I have had a billon tetradrachm of his since 1999. The two coins are roughly the same 26mm diameter but the tetradrachm weighs 12.3g while the much thinner drachm is 4.3g. It seems the early Sasanian kings continued the Parthian practice of striking some coins in the formats that would be western subjects but most coins were in the eastern standard system. I believe the two probably contain about the same amount of silver since the heavy coin is poor billon while the light one is good silver (and not easy to photograph when as clean as my new one). I have not yet cataloged it completely. There are several variations of crown and reverse details. I have a lot of studying to do before I understand Sasanians.
Ardashir I drachm


tetradrachm