Pre-reform issues, Arab-Armenian. Hormizd IV type. After AH 72 / AD 692. AR Drachm (30.2mm, 2.78 g, 3h). Without mint-name (Sears Mint A - Barda‘a or al-Bab?). Year ‘6’ (struck circa AH 73-74 AD 692-694). Good VF for issue.

Islamic Auction 5 - Session 1
Lot: 8.

Pre-Reform Issues, Silver

Estimate: $ 15 000

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Pre-reform issues, Arab-Armenian. Hormizd IV type. After AH 72 / AD 692. AR Drachm (30.2mm, 2.78 g, 3h). Without mint-name (Sears Mint A - Barda‘a or al-Bab?). Year ‘6’ (struck circa AH 73-74 AD 692-694). Obverse margin: bismillah / la ilaha illa (sic, with Allah omitted) / Muhammad ra- / sul Allah
Obverse field: Sasanian bust right with name of Hormizd before / Reverse: Fire-altar and attendants with vestigial date to left and denomination ZWZWN to right; rabbi Allah in margin at 3h. Album M97; cf. Sears, Transitional Drahms of the Umayyad North 1-2. Good VF for issue. Excessively rare.

The legends on this piece are slightly blundered with Allah missing from the second quadrant of the obverse margin and the same word misspelled in the reverse margin.

Some early Arab-Sasanian drachms were struck in the name of Yazdgird III, but the great majority of Arab-Sasanian drachms take the coinage of Khusraw II as their prototypes. This is an extremely rare example of the only known type which copies an issue of Hormizd IV. While the portrait is highly stylised, Hormizd’s name is clearly rendered in Pahlawi on this specimen.

The reverse of the coin bears the Pahlawi word ZWZWN, meaning ‘drachm’, where the mint-name is normally placed. The date, apparently ‘Year 6’, was presumably copied directly from the Sasanian prototype.



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