Zamasp ruled for roughly two years after deposing his brother Kavad I, who had alienated the Zoroastrian priesthood and nobility by supporting the radical Mazdakite movement. Kavad was imprisoned in the Castle of Oblivion but escaped and retook the throne in 499, making Zamasp's entire reign one of the shortest and most turbulent of the late Sasanian period. Coins attributable to him are correspondingly scarce.
The obol denomination itself was already marginal by this period, struck in tiny numbers relative to the dominant drachm coinage.
Zamasp ruled for roughly two years after deposing his brother Kavad I, who had alienated the Zoroastrian priesthood and nobility by supporting the radical Mazdakite movement. Kavad was imprisoned in the Castle of Oblivion but escaped and retook the throne in 499, making Zamasp's entire reign one of the shortest and most turbulent of the late Sasanian period. Coins attributable to him are correspondingly scarce.
The obol denomination itself was already marginal by this period, struck in tiny numbers relative to the dominant drachm coinage.