Drachm - Shapur II

Shapur II holds the unusual distinction of having been crowned before birth — Sasanian nobles reportedly placed the diadem on his mother's womb after his father Hormizd II died in 309, ensuring a male heir would rule rather than any of the older princes they had already blinded or imprisoned. He reigned for 70 years, the longest of any Sasanian king, and spent much of it in grinding warfare against Constantius II along the Mesopotamian frontier. The silver coinage of his reign reflects a period of extraordinary fiscal demand.

The Göbl Ia/6a die pairing places this piece among the earlier phase of his output, before the stylistic shifts that followed the Roman campaigns of the 350s and 360s.