Log in or Sign up
Coin Talk
Home
Forums
>
Coin Forums
>
Ancient Coins
>
Sasanian coins of Hormazd IV: From Y to Z
>
Reply to Thread
Message:
<p>[QUOTE="Parthicus, post: 8200540, member: 81887"]Here's two coins I picked up at the Baltimore show last November:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1437009[/ATTACH] </p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1437020[/ATTACH] </p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>(Historical paragraph reuses some text from one of my older posts. Reduce, reuse, recycle.)</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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 <a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Mints" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Mints" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian Mints</a> ) 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.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Parthicus, post: 8200540, member: 81887"]Here's two coins I picked up at the Baltimore show last November: [ATTACH=full]1437009[/ATTACH] 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. [ATTACH=full]1437020[/ATTACH] 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 [URL]https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian%20Mints[/URL] ) 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.[/QUOTE]
Your name or email address:
Do you already have an account?
No, create an account now.
Yes, my password is:
Forgot your password?
Stay logged in
Coin Talk
Home
Forums
>
Coin Forums
>
Ancient Coins
>
Sasanian coins of Hormazd IV: From Y to Z
>
Home
Home
Quick Links
Search Forums
Recent Activity
Recent Posts
Forums
Forums
Quick Links
Search Forums
Recent Posts
Competitions
Competitions
Quick Links
Competition Index
Rules, Terms & Conditions
Gallery
Gallery
Quick Links
Search Media
New Media
Showcase
Showcase
Quick Links
Search Items
Most Active Members
New Items
Directory
Directory
Quick Links
Directory Home
New Listings
Members
Members
Quick Links
Notable Members
Current Visitors
Recent Activity
New Profile Posts
Sponsors
Menu
Search
Search titles only
Posted by Member:
Separate names with a comma.
Newer Than:
Search this thread only
Search this forum only
Display results as threads
Useful Searches
Recent Posts
More...