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Drachm - Ardashir I
| Issuer | Sasanian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 233-239 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | SNS PBW1#IIIb(4a)/3c(2b) |
| Obverse description | Draped bust of Ardashir I facing right, wearing a diademed close-fitting headdress with prominent korymbos (hair globe) and protective earflaps characteristic of early Sasanian royal portraiture. The diadem is of type G, with ribbon ends visible behind the neck. The effigy is rendered in a stylized frontal-profile manner typical of early Sasanian die-cutting, with the king's features boldly struck in high relief. A beaded border encircles the design, and a Middle Persian (Pahlavi) inscription in the field identifies the king. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | 𐭠𐭥𐭣𐭧𐭱𐭩𐭥 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠𐭭 |
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| Additional information |
Ardashir I founded the Sasanian dynasty by defeating and killing the last Arsacid king, Artabanus IV, at the Battle of Hormozdgan in 224 AD — ending nearly five centuries of Parthian rule. These drachms served his immediate political need to assert legitimacy across a vast, recently conquered territory still accustomed to Arsacid coinage. The SNS type places this issue within a fairly narrow window of his reign, during which the royal portrait type was actively evolving as the new dynasty worked out its iconographic vocabulary.