Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Obol - Ardashir I type IV
| Issuer | Sasanian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 224-241 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Hammered |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Effigy of Ardashir I facing right, depicted with a diademed and elaborately crenellated mural crown surmounting his head, characteristic of early Sasanian royal iconography. The bust is rendered in high relief with a beaded border encircling the field. A Pahlavi (Middle Persian) legend in relief runs around the periphery of the flan, identifying the king. The portraiture exhibits the bold, stylized aesthetic typical of early Sasanian hammered coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | 𐭠𐭥𐭣𐭧𐭱𐭲𐭥 |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Ardashir I founded the Sasanian dynasty by defeating and killing the last Arsacid king, Artabanus IV, at the Battle of Hormozdgan in 224 AD — the same year this coinage type begins. The obol denomination itself is a survival of Hellenistic monetary tradition absorbed through centuries of Parthian practice, still circulating in the eastern provinces long after Greek political power had vanished.
Type IV sits late in Ardashir's classificatory sequence, suggesting a mint administration already beginning to standardize the iconographic program that would define Sasanian coinage for the next four centuries.