Drachm - Ardashir III type II/1

Ardashir III came to the throne at roughly seven years old following the murder of his father Kavad II, himself having ruled only a matter of months after overthrowing Khosrow II. The boy-king's reign lasted under two years before he was killed — almost certainly on the orders of the general Shahrbaraz, who seized the throne in 630. These coins were struck during one of the most violent successions in Sasanian history, a period in which the empire burned through six rulers in roughly four years while simultaneously hemorrhaging territory to the Byzantines and facing the first stirrings of the Arab conquests to the south.