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Hemidrachm - Ardashir I type I/1 - Parthian style
| Issuer | Sasanian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 224-241 |
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| Currency | Dinar (224 AD-651 AD) |
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| Obverse description | Facing bust of Ardashir I, diademed and wearing a Parthian-style tiara adorned with a pellet-in-crescent motif. The portrait is rendered in a distinctly Parthian artistic tradition, characteristic of the earliest Sasanian coinage before the fully developed imperial style emerged. The bust is presented frontally, a convention inherited from late Arsacid numismatic practice, with no surrounding legend on this early issue type. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Left-facing diademed head of Papak, father of Ardashir I and founder of the Sasanian dynastic line, wearing a Parthian-style tiara decorated with a pellet-in-crescent device. The portrait follows the Arsacid artistic convention in its profile treatment, underscoring the dynastic legitimacy claim embedded in this early Sasanian issue. The field is plain, with no inscriptional legend accompanying the effigy, consistent with the Göbl Type I/1 classification. |
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| Additional information |
Ardashir I overthrew Artabanus IV of Parthia at the Battle of Hormozdgan in 224 AD, ending over four and a half centuries of Arsacid rule. His earliest coinage — this type among them — retained strong Parthian visual and technical conventions, a deliberate choice by a king consolidating power over a population and bureaucracy still deeply accustomed to Arsacid norms. The hemidrachm fabric itself is an Arsacid inheritance; Ardashir adopted it before his later issues moved toward the broader, thinner flans that would define mature Sasanian silver.
The Göbl Type I/1 classification places this among the absolute first issues of the new dynasty.