278, Lot: 458. Estimate $150. Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Umayyad Caliphate. Anonymous. Æ Pashiz (22mm, 1.08 g, 3h). Bīshāpūr mint. Date, if present, unclear. Facing bust, wearing crown surmounted by cross; “May xvarrah increase” in Pahlavi to left, illegible inscription to right; open double circle border; in margin from approximately 4 to 7 o’clock, “In the name of God” in Arabic followed by star-within-crescent and triple pellet motifs / Cross potent on three steps; illegible date(?) to left, “BYŠ” in Pahlavi to right; triple circle border with star-in-crescent motif at 3, 6, 9, and [12] o’clock. Gyselen 5.1 corr. (recorded weight; this coin). Near VF, rough brown surfaces. An extremely rare and highly interesting issue.

From the J. P. Righetti Collection. Ex F. Gurnet Collection.

Similarities between this and the previous lot (most notably, the similar facing bust and the thin flans) were first noted by Curiel and Gyseln (‘Monaies byzantino-sasanide,’ Studia Iranica 13/1 (1984), p. 42, note 1) and reiterated by Treadwell (‘The copper coinage of Umayyad Iran,’ NC (2008), 342, adding the misrecorded weight of 0.90 in Gyselen as further evidence).