Drachm - Yazdgerd III

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Obverse script	Inscriptional Pahlavi
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Reverse description	Central Zoroastrian fire altar depicted frontally, with flames rising from the altar cup, flanked by two standing attendants dressed in full priestly robes, each facing the altar and holding a barsom bundle. The attendants stand on a platform base beneath the altar. Four floral or trefoil ornaments are placed in the four cardinal positions outside the beaded inner border, serving as decorative margin devices. Inscriptional Pahlavi legends appear in the field to the left and right, recording the mint name and regnal year of issue.
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Additional information	Yazdgerd III came to the throne in 632 as a teenager, installed by a faction of nobles desperate to hold the empire together after years of catastrophic civil war and plague had gutted both the treasury and the army. He never controlled more than fragments of what his predecessors had ruled. The Arab conquest began within months of his coronation, and by the time coins of his later regnal years were being struck, the mints were moving with the court — fleeing east as province after province fell. This early issue, struck just three years into his reign, predates the fall of Ctesiphon in 637.