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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 2665604, member: 81887&quot;]At first glance, this looks like an ordinary coin of Sasanian Persia:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]592265[/ATTACH] </p><p>However, careful examination reveals it&#039;s actually an impostor, struck by the people who had just overthrown the Sasanians:</p><p><br /></p><p>Arab-Sasanian.&nbsp; AR drachm. In the name of Umayyad governor Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad.&nbsp; AH 62 (=681/2 AD).&nbsp; Obverse: Standard Sasanian obverse of Khusro II, except citing Ubayd Allah b.Ziyad instead of Khusro and with Arabic &quot;Bismillah&quot; (In the Name of God) in margin.&nbsp; Reverse: Standard Sasanian reverse of fire-altar with two attendants, Pahlavi script giving the mint name BJRA (Basra) and year 62 (AH).</p><p><br /></p><p>As the early Islamic armies quickly spread north out of their Arabian heartland, they soon found themselves ruling over a large, urbanized population with a well-developed international commerce and a need for continuing supplies of coinage.&nbsp; Initially, the early caliphate simply copied the already-circulating coins in the conquered areas with only minor changes.&nbsp; In the formerly Byzantine lands of Syria, Jordan, the Levant, and Egypt, this led to the Arab-Byzantine series of bronzes.&nbsp; In formerly Sasanian Persia, Iraq, and surrounding regions, the Arab-Sasanian coinage was struck- large, thin silver drachms closely copying the design of Sasanian coins. (There are also scarce Arab-Sasanian bronzes with more varied designs- but that&#039;s a good topic for another post).&nbsp; This is a very typical Arab-Sasanian drachm.&nbsp;&nbsp; The obverse is a perfect copy of Khusro II&#039;s portrait, and the reverse shows the normal Zoroastrian fire-altar with attendants.&nbsp; Nothing very Islamic there!&nbsp; In fact, although the governor&#039;s name is in Arabic, the only Islamic thing about the whole coin is the brief &quot;Bismillah&quot; added as an afterthought in the obverse margin.&nbsp; The reverse legends giving the mint name and date continue to be written in Pahlavi (a form of Persian script) rather than Arabic, and while the year is in the Muslim Hijri calendar, this is not obvious from the coin alone.&nbsp; (There are even a few Arab-Sasanian coin types that give the date in an era based on the Sasanian king Yazdegard III&#039;s death.)&nbsp; It wasn&#039;t until the late 70s AH (late 690s AD) that there was a major coinage reform, and distinctly Islamic designs featuring Arabic inscriptions were issued in gold, silver, and bronze throughout the growing Islamic caliphate.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are a number of varieties of Arab-Sasanian drachms, citing various officials and from many mints.&nbsp; Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad is a common official, and Basra is the most common mint, so while this is a nice condition coin it was not very expensive due to its lack of rarity.&nbsp; This was won in Frank Robinson&#039;s most recent auction[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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