Something nice arrived in the post today. A Sasanid drachm, my very first! This is the coin I mentioned when @svessien presented a table of his 2021 acquisitions. I never really had it in my mind to get a Sasanid coin before. I would see then come and go in seller listings, but the strikes would be all over the place and the wear would be dreadful. So when this one showed up, it was love at first strike . It has an interesting and exotic design, it is dead-centered, and there is little to no wear. On top of it, it was only 50 quid and it came with a provenance too. I had to have it. And there was another surprise when I actually got to hold it in my hands. The seller did not mention dimensions, so I was shocked to find out that it is 30 mils wide! I had heard before that Sasanid coins were thin, but I did not expect such a wide flan for a drachm. Apart from its physical attributes, I discovered that it was from a ruler associated with an era and events I am really interested it. It is the dude that tried to get rough with Heraclius, and almost got as far as sacking Constantinople. This coin was struck under the reign of Khusro II, or Khosrow II if you prefer that spelling. He is regarded as the last of the great Sasanid (Persian) Kings before the Muslim conquest. He spent most of his reign interacting with the Byzantines one way or another, but it was mostly being in war with them. Relations weren't so bad in the beginning as the Byzantine emperor Maurice actually helped Khosrow reclaim his throne after an internal rebellion. But when Maurice lost the throne in a typical Byzantine manner, Khosrow started raiding Byzantine territories under the excuse of avenging his death. In reality, he just saw an opportunity to get the upper hand from the Byzantines who had defeated the Sasanid empire earlier. There are lots of 'what ifs' concerning those two emperors. Some have speculated that if Maurice hadn't miscalculated the mood of the army that overthrown him, and if Khosrow hadn't focused most of his life fighting the Byzantines, the Muslim conquest and expansion into Asia Minor would have never succeeded. Perhaps that is true, but as there are no Deloreans that can travel back in time yet, there is little one can do about it. Let's focus to what actually did happen. One of my favorite Byzantine emperors is Heraclius, and he was the one that effectively stopped Khosrow from sacking the great city. The siege of 626 has earned its place in history as the one that came really close to ending the Byzantine empire. Constantinople would not be in such a danger again until the Latin sack of 1204. The siege of Constantinople - Constantine Manasses Chronicle (Wikimedia Commons) The Sasanids where based on the Asian side of the Bosporus, and their allies, the Avars, on the European. However, the Byzantine navy controlled the sea which was a deciding factor as it made the communication of the two allies impossible. A siege ensued, but the brilliant Theodosian walls were no match to whatever the siege engines could throw at them. The deciding moment though was the destruction by the Byzantines of all the Persian fleet's efforts to assist their allies, and that was even before the infamous Byzantine secret weapon the Greek fire was invented. After the unsuccessful siege, things went downhill for Khosrow. In 627 at the battle of Nineveh Heraclius gave the deciding blow to the Sasanids with the Persian King having to flee. Dastagird was plundered with untold riches falling into the hands of the Byzantines. These events quite justifiably caused great anger in the ranks of the Persian army and Khosrow was overthrown. He was soon killed, and the Byzantines signed a peace treaty with his son that included the return of the Holy Cross that had been taken from Jerusalem earlier in the war. I have some questions regarding this coin. The design of the reverse apparently depicts a fire altar, but I would love some more information about it if possible. Also, what is the part of the coin that determines the year it was minted? Other than that, show me your Persian and Sasanid coins!
Um, I doubt you want me to show you all of my Sassanids. IDK if CT could handle the bandwidth. I have no idea how many thousands I own. You are right about preoccupation with Byzantium and the damage this did to the Persians. Actually, Khusro II was paranoid and replaced the entirety of the SW guard with a different strategy because he did not trust those who were doing it. The deathknell for Khusro was he sent the cousin of his general Sharhbaraz to assasinate him, since he was fearful the Parthian general of his would overthrow him. Well, his cousin informed Sharhbaraz of the plan and marched back and overthrew Khusro II instead. The great Parthian families were always the military power of the Sasanians. When Khusro II crossed them, it was the end for him. When the Arabs invaded, half the Parthian nobility sided with them, which is why the Sasanians lost. Those families were rewarded with being able to strike "Arab Sasanian" coind for quite a while afterwards. Read "The Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire". It was enlightening to me. Excellent book describing the final century of the Sasanians and why. Overall, there was a truce, the Sasanians ruled and the great Parthian families provided the military. From Khusro I on, the Sasanians tried to take this power back, even while the Parthians provided victory after victory for them. When on the brink of capturing the Byzantines Khusro II treacherously tried to assassinate the greatest general Sharhbaraz, this destroyed the "truce" and led to civil war, from which they never recovered. The Arabs walked right in. Without this treachery, no Arab army could have ever hoped to stand up to the Parthian horsemen. Edit: Changed my mind. I will post a Sasanid. Here is one of Ardashir, the founder of the dynasty.
@Only a Poor Old Man Much basic but very helpful info with illustrations can be found here: https://en.numista.com/numisdoc/identification-of-sasanian-coins-186.html
Sassanid Cataphract, mentioned in the Strategicon by Maurice Tiberius as having almost no chinks in their armor, with only a small slit for vision.
Kushrou ll Mint SY= Shiraz RY=28=617/18 32mm 3.90g I bought this coin cos it was chipped and was as cheap as chips too at £13 inc s+h You will notice that on the obverse there is a inscription that says something like "this is the finest"(I think) referring to either himself or the quality of the silver o0f the coin which actually are always good at this time. There is/used to be a website on Sassanid coins hosted by Beast coins. Mint Year. Info from a member of Forum Ancient Coins discussion group.
Okay, this is not a serious or scholarly work but it is one of the first works of "what ifs" on the great Sasanian - Byzantine conflict I read. It is part of what got me interested in this period of history and it was written at a time where interest in the Byzantine Empire was nowhere near what it is today. Agent of Byzantium is a collection of short stories set in a world where the Islamic conquest does not happen and the Byzantine and Sasanian empires continue their mostly cold, sometimes hot war into the early modern period. Most of the stories have to do with how the empires develop or react to one of the great inventions of that period (such as the printing press). Here is my Khosrau II:
Perhaps we should mention that Khusro II, in addition to being historically significant issued about half of all the Sasanian coins there are both in terms of mints/dates/variations and in the sheer number that survive today. If you are to have just one, Khusro II is a good choice. I have no idea how many medoraman owns either but I suspect I have one for each hundred he has and that is quite a lot of Sasanians. The various kings and mints vary a lot (!!!) in terms of workmanship/artistic quality. Many are rather thin but some are mostly chunky and not as easy to break. I do suggest keeping the thin coins in a way that prevents pressure on them that could break thin coins. That could be as simple as placing eighty in a box that would hold a hundred (most people try to fit in 110 - mistake!) or could mean plastic capsules like Airtites. I use the loose pack theory. I have seen them break in flips housed in flexible plastic sheets when people turn pages with too much flexing. My favorite Sasanian (and I suspect medoraman's?) is Varhran II who shared space with his wife and son guaranteeing you will never get a 'sleeper' identified as something cheaper. In the middle between chunky and thick as well as crude and refined is Peroz. I consider his coins most collectable. The last Sasanian Yazdgard III has so many thin flan coins that it is a job to find one with no edge chipping. After the Islamic conquest, the new rulers issued similar coins in half size. Most overlooked the rules against graven images but my favorite is Suleiman of Tabaristan who replaced his face with a lozenge but, for reasons lost on me, continued using the Zoroastrian fire altar reverse (how this went over with his Islamic beliefs I do not know). Perhaps making the human attendants into Plants vs. Zombies characters made it OK???
Yeah, Vahran II still my favorite. Pricey, but cool. If someone wanted to know "most collectible", meaning easiest to find nice ones for lowest cost, I would say the first period was Ardashir-early Shapur II coins, and most collectible would be Hormizd II. For second period from later Shapur II to Peroz it would be Peroz. Last period Kavad to end of Empire would be Kavad or Khusro I for typical coins. Khusro II are a lot better coins than most late Sasanian coins, so kind of their own kind of deal. Overall, Peroz and Khusro II are the easiest to "roll collect" like Doug likes to say I am prone to do. I own hundreds of examples of each, not having a clue as to totals.
How about sharing with us your finest Khusro II? I would love to see it Thank you for this. It is very useful, especially combined with the one from Forum Ancient Coins. I figured out the mint from the later. It appears that my coin was minted at a Court mint at Ctesiphon or Dastagird. Or an itinerant one. That is a complex issue, but it is worth noting that even in the slightly religious modern Iran, Zoroastrianism is recognised as a protected minority religion. There is much talk of course of discrimination coming from the state, but I recall watching on a documentary that the population of Iran today generally sees Zoroastrianism as part of their heritage and do not feel hostile towards it. In fact, I have met Iranians in London and they were a lot closer culturally to Europe than one would think. Many people, especially in the US, tend to put them in the same basket with Arabic nations which couldn't be more far from reality. They are not Arabs and do not see themselves as such. I can do better! I have one of his solidi. I find it quite hilarious that I have come across 6 different spellings of Khruso so far And I thought that Greek names were bad, even though in those cases it is usually about using instead of the proper ending (os), the latinised (us).
Expanding into a less popular collecting area is a good way to respond to the current high prices! That's a very nice BBA (Court) mint, year 30. Cool mint because it may have travelled with the Shahanshah and was also widely imitated by the Huns. Here's his grandfather, Khusro I (531-579), Kirman, year 22: His father, Hormizd IV (579-590), Jayy mint, year 7: Sassanian invasion coinage, struck in Syria during Khusro's penetration into Byzantine territory, overstruck on an Anastasius follis from a hundred years earlier: Khusro II, WYHC mint, year 33: And another year 33 Khusro II, Jayy mint this time, and clipped down to the post-reform Umayyad dirham standard, which started in 698, long after the Islamic conquest of Sasanian territory. Coincidentally year 33 of Khusro's reign corresponds to the first year of Muhammad’s Hijra in Medina (AH 1=622-623), which I think is a pretty cool detail about this coin.
