278, Lot: 463. Estimate $150. Sold for $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Umayyad Caliphate. Abzāy. Æ Pashiz (20mm, 0.98 g, 1h). Bīshāpūr mint. No date. Crowned janiform head with pellet-within-annulet and crescent before each face; “xvarrah” in Pahlavi to left, the name(?) “Abzāy” to right; circle border; c/m’s: uncertain Arabic legend within oval incuse and star, crescent, and annulet-in-circle within oval incuse / Crowned Gōpatshāh to right; three pellets at end of diadem and at end of tail (very faint), pellet between forelegs, Pahlavi letter P(?) and star to right, “May Bīshāpūr be prosperous (or free?)” in Pahlavi around; circle border. Gyselen 6.15 (this coin) and countermarks IV and XI. Near VF, brown patina.

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.

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).