Here's two coins I picked up at the Baltimore show last November: Coin 1: Sasanian Kingdom. AR drachm. Hormazd IV (579- 590 AD), Royal Year 4. Yazd mint. Obverse: Bust of king right, Pahlavi inscription before "AHRMZD" (Hormazd), behind head APZWN (May [his glory] increase). Reverse: Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants, star and crescent at top, to right mintmark YZ (Yazd), to left date 4. Gobl 201. This coin: Bought from Allen G. Berman at Baltimore Whitman Coin Expo, November 2021. Coin 2: Sasanian Kingdom. AR drachm. Hormazd IV (579- 590 AD), Royal Year 11 (?). Yazd mint. Obverse: Bust of king right, Pahlavi inscription before "AHRMZ[D]" (Hormazd), behind head APZWN (May [his glory] increase). Reverse: Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants, star and crescent at top, to right mintmark YZ (Yazd), to left date (probably 11). Gobl 201. This coin: Bought from Tamco Numismatics at Baltimore Whitman Coin Expo, November 2021. (Historical paragraph reuses some text from one of my older posts. Reduce, reuse, recycle.) Hormazd IV was the son of Khusro I Anushirvan and took the throne on his father's death in 579 AD; his mother was the daughter of a foreign khagan, though whether it was the Turkish or Khazar khagan seems to be in dispute. Hormazd clashed often with the nobles and the Zoroastrian religious leaders, and is said to have ordered the executions of over 13,000 of his noble and religious opponents. He fought a series of minor battles against the Byzantines in the 580s, but the main military highlights of his rule came from the east. In 588 he sent a force under general Vahram Chobin to repel the Turkish forces that had conquered Balkh. Vahram was spectacularly successful, driving back the Turks and acquiring new territory, killing the Turkish khagan and capturing his son, and seizing a huge quantity of gold and other plunder. Unfortunately, the glory of Vahram made Hormazd jealous of his subordinate, and in 589 he had Vahram humiliated and removed from office. Vahram began to raise a rebellion, which inspired a palace plot to depose, blind and kill Hormazd and place his son Khusro on the throne. The rather opportunistic Vahram now declared himself the avenger of Hormazd and marched against Khusro, which did not end well for Vahram. Both coins feature better-than-usual portraits of Hormazd IV, without the usual areas of weak strike and not having much of the usual "Fish-eye" look that his portrait often takes. Both coins are from the same mint, although that wasn't my intent when buying them; Coin 1 was sold as from Zarang mint. This can't be considered an error by the dealer, however, as Gobl (the standard and most widely used catalogue of Sasanian coins) does list this mintmark as Zarang, although Gobl read the letters as ZR. Looking carefully at Coin 1's mintmark, while the first letter potentially is a bit ambiguous (a flaw with many letters in Pahlavi script), the second letter looks very clearly like Z and not like R. More recent works seem to agree, and the late Tom Mallon's useful summary of Sasanian mints (at https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian Mints ) indeed lists this mintmark as YZ for Yazd, which is still a large and thriving city in Iran, rather than Zarang, a smaller city just over the border in modern Afghanistan. I think this illustrates the reason why it is a bad idea in numismatics (as in so much else) to rely too much one one person's statements as the final authority, rather than carefully considering the evidence and taking into consideration the opinions of as many knowledgeable researchers as possible. I was once told "In science, there are no authorities; at best, there are experts", and this holds true for numismatics as well. Please post your related coins.
Great additions & writeup. Ohrmazd (Hormizd) IV (579-590 A.D.) AR Drachm O: Facing bust, head right, wearing crown with tassel to left and surmounted by crescent with vertical lines; single-dotted border, crescent with star at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock. R: Fire altar with two attendants, wearing tall headgear, inside single-dotted border; no marks outside border. GW (Gurgan) mint, dated regnal year 9 = 587/8 CE. 32mm 4.1g Göbl, Sasanian Numismatics, Hormizd IV, crown type I, reverse type 1
I like both of your new portraits. Mine is Jayy (GD) Year 7: "Fish eye" seems about right. And no problem repeating your historical text... I hadn't stolen it for my database yet!
Nice pick ups!....Here's mine from his last year of reign.. Sasanian Kingdom. Hormizd IV. A.D. 579-590. AR drachm (31 mm, 3.56 g, 8 h). WYHC (uncertain site)Fars or Central Iraq.. RY 12. Last year of reign 590AD Obverse..Crowned bust of Hormizd IV right, crescent on forehead, stars flanking crown . Reverse..Fire altar with attendants and ribbon, star and crescent flanking flames. Göbl Type I/1
Here are two recent acquisitions, starting with the latest. Yep, Hormizd IV, year 12, last year of the reign; JD /Jay-Aspahan mint. Complementing the next most recent one, of Bahram /Varhran VI, 590-1 CE. To your point, @ancient coin hunter, I'm helpless with the Pahlavi legends, and am still getting my feet wet in the history. But, with thanks to coaching from numismatist extraordinaire, @Darius590, I'm rediscovering how much fun it can be to get started in a series about which I know this little. As a fringe benefit, you can just kind of relax, and appreciate what's happening on what are, in effect, more purely esthetic levels. I'm liking the contrast in the style of portraiture, just between these two adjacent reigns. Since this isn't a seriously late interval in the history, the apparent crudity of the one of the second reign may have something to do with his having been a usurper.
