165, Lot: 110. Estimate $150. Sold for $216. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SASANIAN KINGS. Yazdgard III. AD 632-651. AR Drachm (33mm, 4.01 g). BBA (Court) mint, moving with the king. Dated RY 20 (AD 651/2). Crowned bust right; winged crown with crescent and star / Fire altar with attendants and ribbon, star and crescent flanking flames; regnal year to left, mint to right. Tyler-Smith Type 11/3; Göbl II/2. Good VF.

Struck in the last year of Yadzgard’s ill-fated reign, and thus the last issue of the Persian Sasanian empire. Yadzgard came to the throne after five years of near anarchy following the death of his grandfather Khusru II. The Persian nobles and army rallied around the new king in the face of the Arab Muslim invasion, but it was to no avail. The Persian army was destroyed in two great battles, at Qadisiya in 636 and Nihavand in 642, and Yazdgard spent the last ten years of his reign fleeing before the conquerors. He finally arrived in Merv with a 4000 member household retinue, but no soldiers. According to one tradition, he was murdered by a mill owner while seeking one last place of refuge.