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Drachm - Bahram IV

Issuer Sasanian Empire
Year 389-394
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Weight 4.15 g
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Obverse description Draped bust of Bahram IV (Varhran IV) facing right, depicted with a short beard and drop earring. The king wears an elaborate winged merlon crown surmounted by a korymbos hair bundle enclosed in a globe, characteristic of his reign. Beaded necklace and jeweled collar adorn the neck and shoulders. A Middle Persian (Pahlavi) royal legend is inscribed to the right of the bust within a beaded border. The portrait is rendered in high relief in the confident Sasanian court style.
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Reverse script Pahlavi
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Additional information

Bahram IV reigned for roughly a decade in the 390s, a period in which the Sasanian empire was managing persistent pressure on its eastern frontier from the Chionites and Kidarites — nomadic groups that had already forced Shapur II into prolonged campaigning a generation earlier. His coinage is not especially rare, but the brief mint attribution windows tied to this type make die-linked examples genuinely useful for chronological arguments about late fourth-century Sasanian monetary administration.

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