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Drachm - Shapur III type I/1
| Issuer | Sasanian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 383-388 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.82 g |
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| Obverse description | Bust of Shapur III facing right in high relief, adorned with earrings and an elaborate crown surmounted by a globe or korymbos. The royal effigy is rendered in the characteristic Sasanian court style, with finely detailed regalia conveying divine kingship. The crown is richly decorated, serving as the principal iconographic identifier of the monarch. The portrait is set within a beaded border typical of Sasanian silver coinage of the late fourth century. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Pahlavi |
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| Additional information |
Shapur III ruled for just five years before being killed by his own nobles — tent pegs driven into the ground, his pavilion collapsed on top of him, according to the sources. His coinage reflects a reign spent largely managing an uneasy peace with Rome formalized at the partition of Armenia in 387, a treaty that removed the single greatest flashpoint between the two empires for a generation. The type I/1 classification in Göbl's system places this among the earliest die groupings of the reign, distinguished within the SNS corpus by the broad range of mint attributions Schaaf documented across references 309 through 330.