340, Lot: 236. Estimate $100. Sold for $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HUNNIC TRIBES, Hephthalites. Before AD 700. AR Drachm (30mm, 3.41 g, 3h). Imitating a Post-Yazdgerd year 37 drachm from the AY mint. In the name of Khusro II. Crowned Sassanian style bust right; Sogdian tamgha and legend in margin / Fire altar flanked by attendants; star and crescent flanking flames. Göbl, Dokumente –; CNG 60, 1091 (same dies). Good VF.

In AH 61, Salm bin Ziyad was appointed Governor of Khurasan by the Umayyad caliph Yazid I. Just a few 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 Hepthalites 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 Hepthalite control for a brief period.

This coin was struck after the deposition of bin Ziyad, but omits the standard bismallah found on the Umayyad issues. This and related imitations (cf. CNG 60, 1090-6) seem to have all been produced in the same Khorasanian locality, by the same Sogdian speaking peoples. The group minting these imitations was plainly impartial to whether the prototype was Sasanian (with Khusro II types) or Arab-Sasanian (imitating either Salm bin Ziyad or ‘Abd Allah bin Khazim).