Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1234. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Medieval] SASANIAN KINGS. Kavadh I. Second reign, 499-531 AD. Æ Drachm (3.85 g, 3h). Uncertain mint. Degraded Pahlavi legend, crowned bust of Kavadh I right, ribbons over right and left shoulders; stars to left of crown / Degraded Pahlavi legend, diademed bust right, raising right hand. SNS Type Ib/3a (Unsicher); M.I. Mochiri, "Les monnaies de Kavad I à double effigie," Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Iranian Studies, 11-15 September 1995 (1998), 1/5 (obv./rev.); cf. Göbl II/4 and pl. 11, 192 = Alram 902 = De Morgan p. 711, 187 (Émission Satrapale); Paruck -; MACW -. VF, brown patina, small test strike on reverse, small flan crack. Extremely rare and exceptional for type. ($1500)

Apart from the one known specimen in silver (Göbl II/4 and pl. 11, 192 = Alram 902 = De Morgan p. 711, 187), all other recorded examples of this type are in bronze. While the obverse is clearly that of Kavadh I, the individual depicted on the reverse, as well as the legends in the field, have been the subject of much scholarly spÉculation. Based on the specimen at his disposal, De Morgan read the legends as "le prête satrape," thereby positing a yet otherwise unknown satrap. A well-preserved and fine-style example published by F. Avazarmani ("Barrasi-ye sekkha-ye sasani, " Fravahr 318 [Tehran 1990], pp. 12-15), led him to conclude that the type was issued to commemorate the designation of Khosrau I as Kavadh's heir. Mochiri, however, examining those specimens then known to him, argued that the figure is the deity Shahrevar (Khshathra vairya), the personification of the ideal of monarchy or empire.