Drachm - Shapur I

Shapur I came to power having already co-ruled with his father Ardashir I, the dynasty's founder, and his earliest drachms reflect that transitional moment before his iconography fully broke from the Ardashirid model. The period 244–253 covers his first major western campaigns, including the catastrophic Roman defeat at the Battle of Misiche in 244 — where Philip the Arab may have paid a substantial ransom to extract the Roman army — and the opening moves of the wars that would eventually produce the capture of Emperor Valerian in 260.

The Göbl I/1 classification places this among the earliest Shapurian emissions, distinguished by specific die axis and crown typology that later issues abandoned.