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Hemidrachm - Ardakhshir II
| Issuer | Persis, Kingdom of |
|---|---|
| Year | 40 BC - 5 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Reverse description | The king depicted standing to the left, clad in royal attire, holding an upright sceptre in one hand while performing a sacrificial gesture over a fire altar positioned to his left. The scene is a standard dynastic fire-worship composition frequently encountered on Persis silver coinage, emphasizing the ruler's priestly and royal roles. Aramaic legends appear in the field surrounding the central design, rendered in the cursive script typical of this series. The style is flat and linear, consistent with the hammered coinage of the Frataraka and successor dynasts of Persis. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Persis survived as a semi-autonomous kingdom under Parthian suzerainty by careful political calculation — its rulers struck their own coinage as a deliberate assertion of local dynastic authority, something the Arsacid overlords tolerated so long as tribute flowed. Ardakhshir II ruled during a period when Parthian power was increasingly strained by Roman pressure in the west and dynastic instability at home, giving peripheral client kingdoms like Persis unusual latitude.
The Sunrise collection reference places this firmly within the corpus catalogued by Sunrise Numismatics, still the standard reference for Persis coinage.