Pashiz / Unit / Chalkous - Ardashir I type II - Parthian style Kulah

Ardashir I founded the Sasanian dynasty by defeating and killing the last Parthian king, Vologases VI, at the Battle of Hormozdgan in 224 AD. These earliest copper issues reflect that transitional moment directly — the Parthian-style kulah headdress places the coinage visually closer to the dynasty just overthrown than to the distinctly Sasanian iconographic vocabulary Ardashir would later develop. It is dynastic propaganda still finding its footing.

Göbl's classification separates these transitional coppers with unusual precision given how poorly documented early Sasanian small denomination production remains. Findspot evidence suggests circulation concentrated in Fars, the Sasanian heartland, rather than spreading through former Parthian administrative centers.