Drachm - Bahram II

Bahram II ruled for seventeen years but spent much of that reign managing simultaneous crises: a usurpation by his brother Hormizd in the east, persistent Roman pressure in the west, and the religious campaign of the high priest Kartir, who used Bahram's reign to systematically suppress Manichaeism, Buddhism, and Christianity across the empire. The execution of Mani himself occurred under Bahram I, but the institutionalization of Zoroastrian orthodoxy as coercive state policy belongs squarely to Bahram II's tenure.

The Göbl IV/1 classification places this among the earliest die groups of the reign, before the bust type was modified following the eastern revolt.