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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 2576507, member: 81887&quot;][USER=38412]@7Calbrey[/USER] : Definitely Khusro II (590- 628 AD), his drachms are the most common Sasanian coins.&nbsp; Khusro is also spelled Khusrau, Khosrau, Chosroes, or Xusro depending on how you like to Romanize your Persian.&nbsp; I think the mint is NAH (unknown site), but am still early in my learning curve for Sasanian coins.&nbsp; This brings up two important points:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Sasanian coins are inscribed in Pahlavi script, which is a special alphabetic system that was used for the Persian language.&nbsp; (Modern Persian uses a system derived from Arabic, with a couple of special features added.)&nbsp; Despite the similar appearance to Arabic, the letter forms in Pahlavi are mostly different for the same sound in Arabic.&nbsp; Also, Pahlavi script was clearly designed by a sadist, because there are many letters that are almost identical in shape, and when you are trying to read a tiny coin inscription that has had centuries of wear, you can quickly get very frustrated.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Every area of numismatics seems to have its area of uncertainty.&nbsp; For Parthian coins, the attribution of coin types to specific rulers is constantly being re-evaluated.&nbsp; Sasanian attributions to ruler are pretty secure (they had the foresight to put their names on their coins), but attributing specific mint marks to specific mint cities is tough, even if you can agree on the letters in the mintmark.&nbsp; For example, the mintmark ShI or ShY is assigned to the famous city of Shiraz by many sources, but others believe it is actually from the much less famous city of Takab, which in Sasanian times was called Shiz.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Still, Sasanian coins are pretty cool, and many types are available in nice condition at reasonable price.&nbsp; Please post as you acquire further Sasanian coins- I will probably learn something from the other replies![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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