Obol - Shapur II

Shapur II ruled for seventy years — the longest reign in Sasanian history, and one that began before his birth, with the nobility reportedly crowning his mother's womb after his father Hormizd II was killed and his brothers blinded or imprisoned. The obol denomination served frontier and small-transaction needs throughout a reign defined by near-constant warfare: three separate wars against Rome, prolonged campaigns against the Chionites and Kushano-Sasanians, and the brutal persecution of Christian communities suspected of Roman sympathies.

The Göbl Ia/6a die pairing places this piece among the earliest phase of his coinage.