278, Lot: 462. Estimate $200. Sold for $260. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Umayyad Caliphate. Ābāy. Æ Pashiz (20mm, 1.75 g, 6h). Bīshāpūr mint. No date. Two facing busts (“Heraclius and son” type), the smaller with three pellets to left and star above, the larger with single pellet to left and pellet-in-crescent above; “May xvarrah increase” in Pahlavi to left, the name(?) “Ābāy” to right; circle border / Crowned Gōpatshāh to right; three pellets at end of diadem and at end of tail, pellet between forelegs, Pahlavi letter P(?) and star to right, “May Bīshāpūr be prosperous (or free?)” in Pahlavi around; circle border. Gyselen 8.2 (this coin). Near VF, brown patina. Rare.

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

In Treadwell’s Phase B (ca. AH 72-95) one finds designs breaking free from the traditional Sasanian repertoire. In place of the Sasanian prototypes, many officials and engravers turned to other art forms, most notably sigillographic imagery, for inspiration, and, in the present case, Byzantine coinage.

The Gōpatshāh, a king in Iranian mythology, was half bull and half human. It appears on Arab-Sasanian coinage paired with three different obverse types (Gyselen 6-8).