Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1218. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $2600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Medieval] SASANIAN KINGS. Hormizd I. 272-273 AD. AR Hemidrachm (1.85 g, 3h). Degraded Pahlavi legend, crowned bust right / "Fire of Hormizd" in Pahlavi, fire altar, Hormizd standing right, Mithra standing left, Taurus symbol on altar; single pellet to left, double pellets to right, of flame; trace of fravahr (wreath) symbol in right field (erased in die?). Göbl I/2a var. (figures reversed); cf. Paruck 101; Alram 704 var. (no Taurus symbol on altar); MACW -; De Morgan p. 667, 34 var. (same). Good VF, toned. Extremely rare. ($3000)

The figure of Mithra on the reverse of this hemidrachm is stylistically similar to Göbl I/1 drachms where the god is holding a fravahr (wreath) symbol in his raised right hand. It is entirely probable, given the trace of the fravahr (wreath) symbol in the right field and the unusually short staff that Mithra now holds, that this reverse is from a reworked and heretofore unknown hemidrachm of the Göbl I/1 type.