320, Lot: 244. Estimate $100. Sold for $140. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HUNNIC TRIBES, Uncertain. Circa AD 680-700. AR Drachm (32mm, 3.33 g, 10h). Imitating a post–Yazdgerd year 37 dirhem from the AY mint. Crowned Sasanian style bust right; Sogdian tamgha and legend in margin / Fire altar flanked by attendants; star and crescent flanking flames. Göbl, Dokumente –; Zeno 33518; CNG 60, lots 1090-1 (same dies). VF, lightly toned, minor porosity.

In AH 61, Salm bin Ziyad was appointed Governor of Khurasan by the Umayyad caliph Yazid I. Three years later, bin Ziyad was deposed and replaced by ‘Abd Allah bin Khazim. The new governor quickly threw in his lot with the rebel faction led by bin Zubayr, dragging Khurasan into internecine conflict. Meanwhile, the Huns took advantage of Arab distraction and invaded the region. In such a fractured state, Khurasan could not resist the Huns, and the whole of the province fell under Hunnic control for a brief period.

This coin and related imitations (cf. CNG 60, 1092-6 and the previous lot) were struck after the deposition of bin Ziyad in the same Khorasanian locality by the same Sogdian speaking peoples. Initially, this group countermarked coins of Khusro II and those of Abd Allah bin Khazim or Salm bin Ziyad with the Sogdian tamgha, as well as the legend. Soon, however, the countermarked issues became the prototype for those imitative issues – such as this coin – and now included the tamgha and legend engraved into the die.