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Drachm - Narseh
| Issuer | Sasanian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 293-303 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Draped bust of Narseh facing right, wearing an elaborate crown surmounted by arcades and a korymbos hair bundle. A trefoil of pellets is positioned behind the crown. The portrait exhibits the characteristic Sasanian royal regalia with fine die-engraved detail, the king's features rendered in high relief against the hammered silver fabric. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Narseh seized power at nearly seventy years old by overthrowing his grand-nephew Bahram III in 293 AD, making his the last successful dynastic coup within the Sasanian house for over a century. His reign ended in military catastrophe: defeated by the Caesar Galerius at the Battle of Satala in 298, he surrendered territories including Mesopotamia and five provinces beyond the Tigris under the Treaty of Nisibis — the most humiliating peace Rome had extracted from Persia in the dynasty's history.
The SNS Iran unpublished attribution marks this as a variety not yet fully catalogued within the standard sequence.