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Dinar - Shapur II
| Issuer | Sasanian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 320 |
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| Currency | Dinar (224 AD-651 AD) |
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| Obverse description | Bust of Shapur II facing right, depicted in high relief with a heavily beaded collar and elaborate court dress. The king wears his distinctive mural crown surmounted by a korymbos — the characteristic Sasanian hair globe — flanked by a crescent above. A dotted border encircles the flan, and a Pahlavi legend in Inscriptional script runs along the right field, reading the royal titulature. The portrait exhibits the bold, slightly stylized treatment characteristic of early Sasanian royal coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Shapur II assumed the throne before birth — or so the legend holds, with Sasanian nobles reportedly crowning the pregnant queen's womb after the death of Hormizd II in 309. He would go on to reign for 70 years, the longest of any Sasanian king, and spent much of it in near-continuous warfare with Rome and the Kushano-Sasanian territories to the east. The early dinar issues from his reign, including this type, predate the brutal Roman campaigns of the 330s–350s and the systematic persecution of Christians within Sasanian borders.
The SNS PBW2 classification places this among the earliest standardized gold issues of his reign, struck to a weight standard that remained remarkably consistent across decades of politically turbulent minting.